Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones claims early super access is funding cosmetic surgery

Anthony Albanese’s government has issued an extraordinary warning that cosmetic surgeons are taking advantage of Australians by encouraging them to spend their retirement savings on procedures.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones on Tuesday gave a striking justification for the Labor government’s new plan to make it harder for Australians to take early retirement.

In comments to be delivered in a speech at the Sydney Institute tonight, Mr Jones suggested that Australians who were allowed to access up to $20,000 of their pension during the Covid lockdowns spent it on cosmetic surgery – and still they could continue to do so.

He will also insist that the Opposition back government policy, even though the Coalition wants super markets to be available for young people to buy their first home.

‘There must be a political consensus. This is something that should be above politics,” Mr. Jones will say in prepared remarks.

‘We need a legislated retirement target to prevent governments from trying to use retirement for anything other than retirement income.

‘I also want to go further and denounce excessive behavior in the private sector.

‘There are surgeons and doctors who see supers as their personal river of gold.

“They’re encouraging, and even pushing, patients to take advantage of their super for what might be called life-enhancing procedures, like cosmetic surgery.”

Shadow assistant treasurer Stuart Robert, who is based on the Gold Coast, said Labor was more concerned with propping up superfunds than giving people choices, and that unions are the biggest investors in industry funds.

“This is the individual’s money, so this attempt is about Labor’s nation-building plan, but it’s not about the individual and what’s right for him,” he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

Early retirement access is allowed in situations where someone is permanently disabled, has a physical or mental condition that prevents them from working, is dying, or their loved one is dying.

Severe financial hardship is also another reason for early access, but the onus is on the person to show that they desperately need the cash for their retirement fund.

The Gold Coast Plastic Surgery website encourages Australians to withdraw $1,000 to $10,000 from their pension as part of a financial hardship provision.

Under the headline ‘Retirement claim for surgery’, he cited an Australian Taxation Office rule allowing access to retirement savings if ‘you are in serious financial difficulty or have acute or chronic pain requiring medical treatment’ ‘.

‘So, you’ve been considering plastic surgery for quite some time but don’t have the funds to do it?’ she said.

‘Maybe you’ve heard other people use Super for Surgery to finance their surgeries.

‘In this article, you’ll get an idea of ​​the current rules governing retirement and plastic surgery.’

Mr Jones has been deployed to attack the opposition after Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced that Labor would introduce new laws to define retirement and prevent a future government from allowing early access to retirement savings.

Despite the fact that the two main parties have some political differences, Jones suggested that any opposition to Labor politics would be divisive.

“This is not the start of a culture war in Canberra,” he said.

“It’s the start of a unifying conversation for all Australians.”

Australians aren’t all united when it comes to super early access, though, as the previous Coalition government in 2020 allowed laid-off workers to draw $20,000 of their retirement savings, in two $10,000 installments.

Labor said the withdrawal of $36 billion from pensions during the first months of the pandemic would leave the poorest Australians in retirement.

Jones said nearly 40 percent of applicants at the time made less than $37,000, one level below the full-time minimum wage of $42,255.

“How tragic that our young and our low incomes were encouraged by the government to do this,” he said.

‘How irresponsible that this was painted as a sensible choice.

Or worse yet, your only option.

The Liberal Party went into the 2022 election on a promise to allow Australians to access $50,000 of their retirement savings to buy their first home.

It would have allowed first-time homebuyers to invest up to $50,000 or 40 percent of their retirement if they had saved for a deposit of at least 5 percent.

Australians can already buy an investor property to rent through a self-managed superannuation fund.

H&R Block’s director of fiscal communications, Mark Chapman, said this was allowed as long as it was purchased for the “sole purpose” of providing retirement benefits.

“The lending criteria for an SMSF are generally much more stringent than for a normal property loan you can get as an individual and come with higher costs, which must be taken into account when determining whether the investment is worth it,” Daily said. Australia Post.

Even though houses in most capitals are out of reach for people with average incomes buying on their own, Jones argued that building more houses was the solution.

“Some would say that housing affordability can be addressed by allowing people to raid your grocery store,” he said.

But this policy is the new clothes for an emperor who doesn’t believe in retirement.

“We know that the answer to housing affordability is to build new homes.”

Super Mandatory debuted in 1992 under a Labor government.

The super-compulsory rate increases to 11 percent, up from 10.5 percent, beginning July 1, 2023 and increases by half a percentage point each year until reaching 12 percent in July 2025.