MySuper’s part of the journey, and also education, literacy, and the fiduciary responsibility around asset allocation is important as well.” Former NSW Treasurer and Attorney General, Peter Collins, is now a director of the industry fund HOSTPLUS.

Collins says he supports lifting the SG “because it’s good policy”. “I think that it has to go to 12 per cent…and there are only two ways it can be achieved – that is, to address the issue now, by increasing the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent; or taxing people more to pay for the age pension later on, and then you get into all sorts of issues about inter-generational equity,” Collins says.

“And can I just make this point, just to set a context? If you asked me to nominate the top five social reforms since Federation – the best five ideas that either side have come up with since Federation – you would have to put the Superannuation Guarantee in that list of five.

It is one of the top five social reforms since Federation and it provides for a form of national saving for retirement that never previously existed. It is world’s best practice and I think we’ve got to stop beating each other up about it. “To look at the politics of it for a second – that was an initiative of [the] Keating Government and the ACTU 20 years ago.

It was not only left intact by the Howard Government, but the Howard Government actually introduced a whole raft of incentives for people to put more into superannuation. So, I mean to put it in context, I think there is a degree of bipartisanship that needs to be acknowledged.

“We have worked together, through bodies like AIST [Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees], to look at all of the economic projections, and the indication is that 9 per cent is not enough; 12 per cent is the figure that [we should] realistically pursue and I think it is sustainable, I think it’s something that we need to do. If we don’t do it, then our young members are going to be paying more tax in the years ahead to cover the gap.”

Ged Kearney, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), says the organisation supports the lift to 12 per cent, but is particularly concerned about how the system caters for lower-income earners, and for people, particularly women, who experience broken work patterns.