Election battle shaping up over early superannuation access

The Coalition has suggested it will join One Nation in announcing its own policy that makes the case for Australians to have early access to their retirement savings.

Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg floated ideas to allow super to be used as collateral and a portion to be diverted to pay off a mortgage or increase the size of a loan during a speech in Sydney on Tuesday.

“I want to stop those people from being retired renters unless they choose to be that way,” he said.

“I don’t want this to become a compulsory design feature of a retirement policy which doesn’t work together. I want the housing policy to work in concert with superannuation, with social security, so that we can look at all these things together.”

Bragg said his ideas to use super to support homeownership were not an official policy, but the Coalition was “keeping an open mind”.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was forced to rule out the plan, making it the second time he has had to pull back his frontbencher for freelancing policies.

“We want to see Australians have the choice as to how it’s invested, but this is not Coalition policy,” he told reporters.

Taylor said his housing policy will be announced “over the next little while”.

Bragg’s plan is, however, not entirely out of the Coalition’s wheelhouse.

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The Coalition went to the last two federal elections proposing to allow Australians to withdraw up to $50,000 of their super for a first home deposit.

Bragg reignited the debate during a rogue and wide-reaching National Press Club address in August, where he labelled the 12 per cent compulsory super system as “one of the biggest public policy failures since federation”.

He also freelanced on housing policies and migration targets, which Taylor had to walk back.

“Andrew expressed some of his personal views yesterday. I’ve made clear to him that his job is to express… the views of the Coalition and the senior team of which he is a member,” Taylor said at the time.

One Nation took the lead on the debate with its own policy announcement to allow Australians to access 3 per cent of their super for up to three years.

The far-right party commissioned the Compass Polling to survey 1008 voters on their policy and found 62 per cent either strongly support or somewhat support.

Meanwhile, 28 per cent strongly oppose or somewhat oppose and 10 per cent are undecided.

One Nation claimed that 60 per cent of Labor voters, 67 per cent of Liberal voters and 55 per cent of Greens voters support the policy.

“Jim Chalmers claimed our policy would ‘end superannuation as we know it’. Australians are telling him they want the choice,” Pauline Hanson said on Tuesday.

“Losing your home today is not going to make anyone’s retirement better.”

Super industry voices and some economists have raised concerns that One Nation’s plan to potentially allow millions of Australians to access their super could drive up inflation in the short-term and lead to more pressure on taxpayers through the age pension in the long term.

Australians can already access some of their super early in very limited circumstances, such as compassionate grounds or severe financial hardship.

About 67,900 people were allowed to withdraw a combined $1.4 billion in their retirement savings in the 2024-25 financial year in what was the highest figures in a seven-year period, according to the latest data from the Australian Tax Office.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has declared the next federal election a “referendum” on super as Labor prepares to defend the compulsory system it created under the former Keating government.

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He criticised the Coalition on Tuesday for spending all their time and effort copying One Nation.

“That would be devastating for people’s retirement incomes. It would make people worse off. Superannuation is for retirement,” he told the ABC.

“The Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation all want to vandalise that in ways that would make Australians worse off and the budget much worse off as well.”