Back at the Crossroads: The Slippery Fish of Australian Retirement Income Policy

Abstract

Australia's retirement income arrangements had reached a policy crossroad by the early 1980s. Not unlike the proverbial slippery fish, the goals and roles of its constituent elements were very difficult to grasp. The ensuing reforms of the 1980s and 1990s brought increasing coherence to these arrangements. Some of the more recent changes, however, have once again introduced policy slipperiness through creating a system that is at odds with the intent of the earlier reform efforts. Indeed, Australia's retirement income arrangements have morphed into a system whose function is no longer simply to protect workers from the loss of earned income arising from retirement. The ‘zenith’ of this situation was reached in July 2007 when the major changes in superannuation announced in the 2006 federal budget took effect. Thus, Australia is once again back at a policy crossroad as far as her retirement income arrangements are concerned.