
Barnaby was right.
From the Australian today (emphasis added):
Labor is planning to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars from the Future Fund in an unprecedented move that will help the government meet its promise of returning the budget to surplus in 2012-13.
A spokeswoman for Finance Minister Penny Wong confirmed to The Australian that more than $250 million worth of assets were due to be withdrawn from the Future Fund in the 2012-13 financial year, despite the fund having been created, by Peter Costello, under the condition it was not to be touched before 2020.
The government, which has forecast a surplus of $3.5 billion in 2012-13 after several years of heavy deficits, claims that the assets will be returned to the fund at a future date.
But the opposition has slammed the move as “reckless and fiscally irresponsible”.
“The fact is that the government is planning to raid the Future Fund, including the revenue from the expected sale of Future Fund assets in its revenue forecasts, yet they haven’t been able to point us to where in the budget that money is supposed to be going back into the Future Fund,” opposition assistant Treasury spokesman Mathias Cormann said yesterday.
Mr Costello, the then treasurer, established the Future Fund in 2005 to cover the costs of future public servant superannuation liabilities. At the time, he told parliament: “The fund will only be drawn upon at the earliest in 2020 or a time when an independent actuary determines that the fund’s assets are sufficient to offset the unfunded part of the government’s accrued superannuation liabilities.”
The Future Fund’s own website sets out that “withdrawals from the Future Fund may only occur once the superannuation liability is fully offset or from 1 July 2020″.
…
A spokesman for the Future Fund confirmed the anticipated withdrawal was known to the fund and that this was the first time a withdrawal had been included in the budget bottom line.
Senator Cormann said the “real concern is that, if they get away with their plans to raid the Future Fund now they will do it again and again, every time they need more cash to fund their wasteful spending”.
“The Future Fund was set up by the Coalition after we paid off the Hawke-Keating debt and it shouldn’t be touched until the public service superannuation liability is under control,” he said.
Remember Barnaby Joyce’s forewarnings before this year’s May budget?
Before the budget (5th May):
In response to a question I put in Senate estimates, Treasury revealed that $64 billion of the difference between our gross debt and our net debt is made up of the cash and non-equity investments of the Future Fund. The Future Fund is there to cover the otherwise unfunded costs of public servants’ superannuation.
That is a little fact that the people of Canberra might be interested in. When Wayne mentions net debt translate that to, I am going to pay his debt off with my retirement savings.
And right after the budget (13th May):
Of course, the public servants will not be happy when we use their retirement savings, put aside in the Future Fund, to pay off some of Labor’s massive debt.
Barnaby was right when he forewarned of the US debt crisis.
And he is right again, about your super being stolen by our government.
Think it is only public servants’ super that is at risk of being stolen by our government?
Think again.
For quite some time now, your humble blogger has been covering the wave of government confiscations of private citizens’ retirement funds that has been sweeping the over-indebted Western World, and warning readers that it is going to happen here too.
The reason this has been happening in so many countries abroad, including the USA, UK, France, Ireland, Poland, and more?
Exactly the same reason as cited by our own government now.
To help meet the government’s budget targets. With the vague promise that the “borrowed” monies will be returned at some unspecified future date.
And we all know what most politicians’ promises are worth.
Barnaby Joyce is the only politician in our nation with the wisdom, foresight, integrity, and courage, to publicly confirm what this blogger has been repeatedly forewarning.
That government theft of private super savings, is a real and present danger here in Australia too.
And don’t kid yourself that a Coalition victory at the next election will save us.
The Liberal Party quietly announced a new policy on June 3 this year, that should have every citizen deeply concerned. It represents an even more blatant move to have the government get their hands on not only public servants’ super, but everyone’s super.
Learn more, in this most recent of my many previous blog articles on the topic:
Stealing Our Super – I DARE You To Ignore This Now
UPDATE:
Senator Wong denies that their plan is to steal public servants’ super.
Are you convinced?
I’m not.
Wong’s very opaque counterclaim is that they are “simply making a small change to the types of assets it holds”. The key here is having a very clear definition of exactly what is meant by “a small change”, and “types of assets”.
This denial in no way convinces me that Labor are not shuffling/stealing money (and/or figures) to meet their objective – a media headline of return to surplus in 2012-13. After all, this government has form for fiddling the books, as documented numerous times on this blog … and openly conceded by former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner in his book after retiring.
And not just form for fiddling the books … there’s also this:
(March 2007) Peter Costello: Rudd will mortgage future, leaving kids to foot
(April 2009) Kevin Rudd raids Future Funds
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Tags: barnaby joyce, budget surplus, compulsory superannuation, future fund, penny wong, pensions, SGC
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