Liberal MP pushes for party to rule out changes to superannuation

Garth Hamilton says Liberal Party set to shift on superannuation In short: Garth Hamilton is drawing a line in the sand over accessing superannuation for first home buyers, saying people now want greater security in retirement. The influential MP's call goes against frontbench colleagues who favour policies for dipping into super. What's next? Mr Hamilton says he has majority support in the party room and has spoken to leader Angus Taylor about the policy. A push is underway within the Liberal Party for a fundamental shift on superannuation, with one prominent backbencher now confident he has convinced a majority of colleagues to rule out any early access for first home buyers. At the past two elections under Scott Morrison and then Peter Dutton, the Coalition adopted a policy that would have allowed up to $50,000 to be withdrawn from super to put towards a first home deposit. The Liberal Party has not adopted a formal policy position since last year's election defeat, but some senior figures have continued to argue for early super access. In recent months, Shadow Housing Minister Andrew Bragg has floated a range of options for dipping into super accounts. "You could take it out to pay off a mortgage or to pull together a first home loan," he told the ABC in September. He also suggested using super as "collateral or an offset" to buy a home. Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson backed Senator Bragg, arguing home ownership should be given priority over retirement savings. "This is why home ownership is so important, and we need it to take precedence as the primary economic interest for retirement and during your working life," he said at the time. Labor pounced, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers arguing the next election would be a "referendum" on super. Now, in a setback for Senator Bragg and Mr Wilson, Liberal MP Garth Hamilton believes he has convinced his colleagues to abandon any return to a super-for-housing-style policy. "I think we should be offering no changes at all to how it's invested, taxed or accessed," the member for Groom has told the ABC's Insiders. "I think things have changed. "I think it's a reasonable position for us to look at super, not as I think maybe we have done previously as a product of the Labor Party, but as being something that matters to every Australian. "Every door I knock on, they can tell you what's in their super balance. They can tell what it means at retirement. It's one of the first apps on the top of their phone. "At a certain age, it becomes the thing that you focus on. I think that's telling us that in this environment, we should be focused on that too." It is a move reminiscent of then-Liberal leader John Howard in 1995 dropping his long-standing opposition to Medicare and accepting the Australian people wanted no change to the Labor creation. "I think having an ideological bent on super would be a difficult position for us to sustain to people,"Mr Hamilton said. "What this is trying to do is saying we hear you, we hear the challenges that Australians are facing, and we want to support that." Mr Hamilton has been quietly working to convince his colleagues to lock in behind the existing superannuation rules, and believes he now has majority support across the party room. He has also spoken to Opposition Leader Angus Taylor about the issue. "He sees the same challenges and acknowledges that this is an important policy discussion for us to have," Mr Hamilton said. One Nation, meanwhile, is promising a "super pay boost" policy, allowing a quarter of super contributions (3 per cent of wages) to instead be diverted into take-home pay to help Australians paying a mortgage or rent for a period of three years. Mr Hamilton says his push to lock in the current super system is about "security, stability, confidence", unlike One Nation that would "let you spend it on a second jet ski".