Tax breaks on superannuation are expensive, unfair, and unsustainable. 

They cost the budget $45 billion a year – or about 2 per cent of GDP – and will soon exceed the cost of the Age Pension. Two-thirds of their value benefit the top 20 per cent of income earners, who are already saving enough for their retirement. Much of the boost to balances from tax breaks is never spent, which means super has become a taxpayer-subsidised inheritance scheme. 

The government has committed to higher spending on defence, healthcare, aged care, and disability care. So reining in super tax breaks is a must. 



Join Grattan Institute Economic Policy Program Director Brendan Coates and Senior Associate Joey Moloney for this special speed-briefing webinar event on their new report Super savings: Practical policies for fairer superannuation and a stronger budget. All you need to know, in just 25 minutes.

Panel


Brendan Coates

Facilitator

Brendan Coates is the Housing and Economic Security Program Director at Grattan Institute, where he leads Grattan’s work on retirement incomes and superannuation, housing, and macroeconomics. He is a former macro-financial economist with the World Bank in Indonesia and consulted to the Bank in Latin America.

Prior to that, he worked in the Australian Treasury in areas such as tax-transfer system reform and macro-economic forecasting, with a strong focus on the Chinese economy. Brendan holds a Masters of International Development Economics from the Australian National University and Bachelors of Commerce and Arts from the University of Melbourne.

Joey Moloney

Facilitator

Joey Moloney is the Deputy Program Director of Grattan Institute’s Economic Policy program. He is an economist with experience in public policy research and implementation. He has worked at the Productivity Commission and the federal Treasury, with a focus on the superannuation system and retirement incomes policy. Joey holds a Bachelor of Arts with majors in Politics and Media from La Trobe University, and a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours in Economics from the University of Melbourne.