Australia’s pension funds control nearly $3 trillion of workers’ capital, but they’re currently dominated by corporate interests. The labor movement should take back control over them from bankers and use the funds to build a better future.
Article in Jacobin by Dave Kerin and Dan Musil
Australia’s “superannuation wars” are still raging. The current debate is about whether increasing employer superannuation payments will or won’t affect wage growth. But this misses the most important point.
Although they are misleadingly referred to as “employer contributions,” superannuation payments are neither a gift nor a tax on wages. For workers in formal employment, superannuation payments are part of our wage, paid into collective funds, to be managed in our collective interest.
Scott Morrison’s Liberal government accepts this principle when it finds it convenient. As soon as the pandemic hit, it allowed workers to withdraw up to $20,000 from their superannuation accounts. Given that the alternative would have been to fund a social safety net, you can see why the Liberals chose the first option, which shifted the financial burden onto workers.
But there’s a more worrying side to this. Morrison’s move was also part of a long-term push to wrest away what little control workers and unions exercise over super funds that are worth almost $3 trillion AUD.
Read the rest in Jacobin.