Overview
- Andrew Bragg will use a Financial Services Council speech to outline options that would let people use their superannuation as collateral for mortgages or as loans to increase borrowing capacity.
- Bragg stressed the ideas are proposals for debate rather than settled Coalition policy and the party has not formally adopted them.
- One Nation has separately proposed allowing a temporary diversion of roughly 3% of salary away from super for three years to help with rent or mortgages, fueling the wider political fight.
- Labor and Treasurer Jim Chalmers have strongly attacked the measures, warning they would weaken retirement savings and calling them an attack on the superannuation system.
- Policy advisers note the trade-off is between short-term housing access and long-term compound growth of savings, recalling the Coalition’s past $50,000 first-home withdrawal pledge and reviews that question whether the 12% super rate affects wages.