Opening up early access to super for housing would have a negative effect on the balances of even those members that don’t dig into their savings, with funds forced to adopt more conservative investment strategies and hold more liquid assets.
The circa $88 billion industry fund for workers in health and community services reckons that alleviating the affordable housing crisis will boost its other investments by easing the cost of living and inflation.
Super tax changes will cost retirees
The possibility for government to increase superannuation taxes in response to the ballooning
budget deficit caused by COVID-19 could severely hurt member balances at retirement, according to a research note by the global implementation specialist manager Parametric.
Raewyn Williams, head of research (Australia) and analyst Josh McKenzie, in a short paper titled
“Will retirees pay the price for superannuation tax rises?” argue that investment tax inside super
may be a political “soft target” because it won’t be felt directly in most voters’ hip pockets, but it will
come with an unfavourable “tit for tat” – the longer-term impact on retirement outcomes.
Read the full Media Release: here.
