Essay by Eric Worrall
Australia’s superannuation retirement savings, recently praised by President Trump, could be raided to push forward Net Zero.
As clean energy investment faces headwinds, superannuation could help fill the funding gap
By climate reporter Romy Stephens
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Barriers to investment
Super funds invest in projects that achieve a minimum return to justify the risk and meet regulatory benchmarks, such as the superannuation performance test.
The federal government is currently reviewing the annual test, which was introduced five years ago to protect Australia’s retirement savings and hold trustees to account for underperformance.
…
“Renewable energy infrastructure is a younger infrastructure asset and importantly, the policy environment around renewables continues to change.
“As a result, it becomes riskier or is seen to be riskier by many super funds and really needs a different approach.”
…
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the performance test was here to stay and any reforms would not water it down.
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Less than 10 per cent believe Australia is on track to achieve its 82 per cent renewable electricity target by 2030.
“We have high construction costs, particularly for wind; we have long planning processes that take a lot of time and money to work through, we have delays in transmission,” CEIG CEO Richie Merzian said.
“On top of all that, the federal government is now introducing a new capital gains tax on international investors as well, who make up the lion’s share of investors right now.”
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-26/superannuation-renewable-energy-investment-funding-gap/106842116
Australia’s retirement savings scheme involves a mandatory contribution by employers into a saving account which cannot be touched until retirement, not even to prevent bankruptcy. The only exceptions are a medical emergency, if the retirement fund agrees to let you have your own money, or an accident which causes permanent disability. Even after retirement access to the money is restricted, if you take all the money as a lump sum you pay a substantial penalty.
Legally restricted retirement savings are a great idea until they aren’t – they are too tempting target for an inept government which is running short of money.
When Superannuation retirement savings were first introduced, I asked my uncle if he had considered putting some of his investments into a super fund. His reply was “too risky, not enough control”. Sure enough, shortly after this conversation the Keating government launched its first raid on superannuation – replacing a 30% exit tax with a 15% contribution and 15% exit tax. That 15% contribution tax would have caught my uncle if he had followed my suggestion.
Given this precedent of left wing government cash raids, despite Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ assurance the funds will be continue to be protected, I’m not feeling reassured.
Renewables are high risk. They cannot survive without subsidies, and One Nation, which stands a real chance of holding the balance of power after the next federal election, and a small chance of winning outright government, has promised to eliminate renewable subsidies.
The current government has shown a pig headed determination to push Net Zero through no matter what the evidence that its a bad idea. Their recent elimination of tax breaks for capital investment, to make capital investment equivalent to wage income, will have to be offset somehow to get their Net Zero programme back on track, at least to the extent it is possible to get such a programme on track. A raid on retirement savings, recently described by Prime Minister Albanese as a “National Asset”, is the obvious next step.
When the subsidies dry up, the market exposes those swimming naked.
But if they pee in the pool enough, it will still look like they have the money.
LOL!
Leftist politicians act solely to garner kudos from their comrades at the UN, WEF etc, rather than the taxpayers / voters who pay their lifestyles.
Just look at the lists of leftist politicians who gravitate to gigs at the UN or other N.G.O.s as soon as the opportunity presents or can be created.
It all fits with the “world governance” designs of the left.
Would you believe magic carpets that strip CO2 from air by 2050?
If my grant is approved, I just might take that idea and run with it.
Let me know if you want me to cut you in on the graft. Can you spin BS?
/s of course.
I don’t know, but if it works we’ll have very high overhead.
No. Would you believe magic carpets that strip money from tax payers by 2040?
How about the building is surrounded by economists and you have no chance of escape?
Ok. Look. I was kind of out of line with that crack about grifters.
Thus speaks a true Marxian economics graduate:
‘Mr Albanese’s economics degree from Sydney University had a strongly Marxian focus … favoring central direction rather than what is perceived as the anarchy and heartlessness of the market system’. aka an end of ‘rugged individualism’ and the embrace of ‘the warmth of collectivism’.
I can readily identify with this.
I abandoned economics study in the 1970s – had a course prof who was an unreconstructed acolyte of Marx. I got fed up with the unwelcome attempted Marxist indoctrination I was actually paying for.
(Karl that was, not Groucho. Groucho would have made much more sense, and his declarations have much more real-world relevance.)
There is not a single retirement plan anywhere – not a national pension system, not corporate pensions, not Social Security, not a 401(k), not private savings, not the stock market – that is going to survive the repricing of assets to their correct levels. “Retirement” does not really exist. It was a temporary anomaly made possible in the West by the illusion of affluence, the predicates of which cannot now be repeated.
Retirement is presented as an individual optimization problem when it is really a societal throughout problem, and the means for abundance at the scale required to allow everyone to retire simply do not exist. Regardless of what the ledger says, you will not be getting a comfortable retirement. Even if the government does not outright seize the money, market crashes will reduce your principal, inflation will eat away the purchasing power of what little remains, and actual shortages (i.e. real economic hardship, not accounting problems) will mean that there will not be enough stuff to go around anyway.
You might as well spend the money now and position yourself to survive in a world of scarcity. Get out of debt, especially mortgage debt, and establish a lien-free home that your children can inherit. Stop playing the game. Deprive Wall Street of the passive flows they use extract more money for themselves. Starve the beast. It is the one revolutionary act that ordinary people can still do without breaking the law.
“Get out of debt, especially mortgage debt, and establish a lien-free home that your children can inherit.”
You’d have to live in a place with no property tax.
This abuse has already occurred in the New Zealand scheme “KIWISAVER”
ANZ sold there accounts to blackrock without tell the account holders they lost value because the funds where put into green shit schemes
All you can do is change provider
Why weren’t some people shot?
Because the government controls most of the guns. Only criminals have access to weaponry and they don’t care about “rich” people’s retirement savings.
Unfortunate-but then its been said I’m bloody minded. That said, if a looney-tune can get a gun and shoot up the place, why can’t a civic minded sort find one? They -the guns-can’t be all gone, can they?
I don’t know much about other country’s political structure. As far as I know, the U.S. is the only country where self protection is written into the founding documents.
Leftists and elitists in this country have tried to limit our rights including the right to protect oneself, family and property. Some states have succeeded in limiting our rights and come up with new laws and statutes to nullify our constitution. Thankfully, we have been able to reverse the trend but, it is a constant battle.
The political class are comfortable with criminals having weaponry because they are like-minded. They look at people as underlings that are only worth their labor and spare parts.
If you are wondering where the guns are, check the criminal and ruling class’s closets.
Thank you for the reasoned reply. Ain’t it the truth of what you say? yep.
This is shades of the Shitlam Govt in the ’70s who emptied the Australian Federal Public Servants superannuation pool to find more money to throw on the dumpster fire that was their economics “plan”.
It’s why the were looking for illegal loans from shonky Middle Eastern arms dealers.
Other peoples’ money is a national asset to the Left.
“Capital Gains Tax”
That’s right, scare away investors. The perfect solution to gain investment!
They’re following the globalist plan.
“Legally restricted retirement savings are a great idea until they aren’t – they are too tempting target for an inept government which is running short of money.”
Case in point: US Social Security “trust” fund.
If there was ever an entity that required heavy regulation it is government. Australia is a perfect example along with most other nations.