Interesting ideas Cameron, and I agree on the dangers of our debt binge.

But I'm not sure I understand the key bit:
"Most banks these days offer offset accounts for mortgages, where any balance effectively reduces the principal of the loan and hence interest payments. We should be able to use our superannuation in a similar fashion, with the option of using both our employee and employer benefits, where possible, as an offset to the mortgage balance."

"In a similar fashion". Do you mean, in effect, depositing (some) super in an offset account? So the role of that money would be to reduce mortgage interest? In that role it would effectively earn the rate of mortgage interest.

If you default on the mortgage, would the bank keep the offset, i.e. your super?

Geoff, that is exactly what I mean. Your super in effect becomes an offset to your mortgage.

However you physically can't access it, so you couldn't go and spend that money, and once your mortgage is paid off, or at any other time, you could reinvest it in any of the other normal super investment options.

If you defaulted, the current processes would apply (eg. bank sells home), but your superannuation would not be touched. The aim of this proposal is to reduce both the likelihood and number of people who this would happen to in the first place.

Cameron Leckie

Its time the parasites were hit with a Super Profit Tax. Westpak $3,000,000,000 profit in the past 6 months 627 battlers have had their homes taken off them by banks at the same time.