Mr Joyce said on Tuesday Labor was eyeing steeper taxes on super accounts, offering that “you can’t trust the government” as his only evidence.
“They lie, okay?” Mr Joyce told the ABC’s Radio National.
“And when people are liars, it’s very hard to become unliars.”
He went on to say One Nation’s policy was in part driven by concern for those affected by the collapses of First Guardian and Shield, which have wiped out some $1.2bn in retirement savings for 12,000 Australians.
The other concern was for “people approaching us” who say they cannot access their super via hardship exceptions.
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce says accessing super early ‘should be simpler’. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Hardship claims must be made to super funds directly and typically require evidence, such as six months’ proof of income support payments.
There is a $10,000 cap.
Mr Joyce said “we are finding people who say to us: ‘If I don’t get access, I will lose my house.’
“Or: ‘If I don’t get access for rent, I get kicked out.’
“So they’ve got a choice between two different assets – their house as an asset … or super somewhere down the track as an asset.”
He could not say how One Nation would grant easier access but suggested that giving evidence of financial stress was too much compliance.
He said “it should be simpler than that” to access “a portion” of super.
The debate on early access to superannuation was started by Coalition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg’s address to the National Press Club last week. Picture: NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar
‘Biggest threat to superannuation’
Liberal frontbench senator Andrew Bragg sparked the conversation in Canberra about early access to super, branding the system an “illiberal experiment” and “one of the biggest public policy failures since federation”.
It struck a chord with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who this week accused the Albanese government of looking to “Australians’ superannuation to fund more of Labor’s bad ideas”.
“When the Prime Minister calls your super a ‘national asset’ that can be ‘used more appropriately’, alarm bells should ring,” she posted on social media.
“Your super is not Labor’s piggy bank. It is your money, earned through your work and put aside for your retirement.”
Also fronting media on Tuesday morning, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Coalition and One Nation “have made it abundantly clear that they no longer support universal super”.
“So they pose the biggest threat to superannuation in the 40 years or so that we’ve had compulsory superannuation,” he told Seven’s Sunrise, calling it “a really important part of our economic security and retirement incomes for Australian workers”.
He added “the next election will be a referendum on the future of superannuation – whether or not Australian workers can continue to rely on the economic security that comes from the superannuation system”.