Rear Vision dives into the murky waters of superannuation to see just how Australia came up with its unusual system of retirement funding.
A means-tested age pension became available in Australia to all women aged sixty and men aged sixty five in 1910. It was - and is - paid out of general revenue. Superannuation – a retirement savings scheme in which our employer contributes a certain percentage of our wages into a fund – didn’t become widely available in Australia until it was introduced by the Keating government in the early 1990s. Rear Vision looks at how Australia came up with its unusual system of funding retirement through a mix of superannuation and the age pension.
Guests:
Professor Susan Thorp, Chair of Finance and Superannuation, University of Technology, Sydney
Peter Martin, Economics correspondent for Fairfax Media
Professor Francis Castles, Emeritus Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University
Further Information:
ASIC Money Smart (https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/superannuation-and-retirement)
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/superannuation-in-australia/4626038