This paper proposes that Australia abolishes tax concessions for superannuation and create a universal (non-means-tested) age pension. Summary As Australia’s population ages, government policies that assist retirement will become even more essential. Superannuation tax concessions and the age pension are the two key government policies that assist the ageing, but they are becoming increasingly expensive...

After declining worldwide since the late 1980s, defined benefits plans will not recover their previous dominance in Australia because they can only be offered by large and stable organisations. Since 1992 Australia has had compulsory superannuation that is mostly privately managed. In addition, several policy measures have unduly weakened defined benefits schemes, especially in the...

Investments in coal, oil, and gas increase financial risk without increasing returns, according to this report, which includes the first simulation comparing performance of an Australian fossil fuel free investment portfolio with an indexed ASX portfolio. Introduction Debates about climate change have recently been reframed in terms of financial risks. Current global fossil fuel reserves...

New Zealand’s KiwiSaver was introduced on 1 July 2007. New Zealand’s success with the ‘soft compulsion’ of automatic enrolment has been and is continuing to be an influence in the design of opt-out schemes in the UK and Ireland. While there have been numerous changes to KiwiSaver as outlined in this paper, six years on...

This article is an abridged version of an IGPS working paper of the same title published October 2013. The working paper was commenced earlier in the year, but completion became timely after the government put out a discussion document outlining the Flexi-Super concept and invited submissions. Accordingly, this is not a response to the discussion...