Is it my imagination, or is this another piece of special pleading on behalf of an industry that already rips $4.5 billion a year from our savings?

On what planet, pray, does the legaized extortion from me of more savings, subject as they are to the whim of the government as to how they are taxed at any one point of time, subject as they are to the rapacious fat cats of the industry who plead poor in the hard times and reward themselves (even more) handsomely in the good, subject as they are to more rules and regulations than any mortal can comprehend, become a recipe for good economic policy?

That's a rhetorical question, by the way.

Pericles ,get real.Try operating a small business yourself.Unless you are in a business such as insurance,accounting or legal with high margins forget it.Paul Keating recently advocated that super contributions by the employer be increased to 19%.Now in some industries eg building workers comp is 12% plus holidays ,long service,sick leave etc makes many small business very marginal.Many have left the trades looking for well paid Govt jobs.What do you think is happening?If super increases more many businesses will simply pay their employees cash,absorb the employees tax obligation and don't pay super workers comp or any other benefits.There is already a huge market in employees travellers in this country cash to negate all other expenses, since many small business who make this country function barely survive in under the present regime.
They provide essential services which you take for granted.
The costs of employing people in this country because of Govt regulation have made it very difficult to employ people.Hence the growth of mico business and the marginalisation of those who are less able.[Unless you have a protected job in the PS.]

Arjay, your post puzzles me. As it happens, I have been running a small business for the past twelve years, and I agree with every word you say about how tough it is, thanks to the vast amount of overhead - both direct dollars and through feeding the bureaucracy - imposed upon us by successive governments. My post obviously didn't get the point across, that I consider the proposal to rip even more money out of our pockets into the greedy, inefficient maw of the superannuation "industry" (industry? Hah! more like legalized extortion) under the guise of economic policy to be merely a form of special pleading by someone with a vested interest in the outcome.

Pericles.I shouldn't skim read,your comment obout the 'Fat cats' I assumed to be private enterprise "fat cats." I agree.

It might surprise you to know Pericles and Arjay that I agree with both of you. There are things we could do to reduce the cost of super fees, and governments should also provide a basic service themselves for those who are bamboozled about the choice that will be foisted upon them in a couple of months.

As for all those costs you are paying in small business. I'll let you into an arcane economists' secret. They're not the main thing that is keeping your returns down. That's competition - and your competitors (probably) face the same costs.

That's not a justification for poor regulation or cost increasing imposts, but your clients/customers pay most of those. If we got rid of them all, things would look good for you for a while, but then our old friend competition would reduce your margins to take back maybe 9/10ths of the gains.

Nicholas,clients/customers have a finite source of money.We cannot increase prices at will.When the GST came in,inflation hardly went up.Many businesses simply absorbed most of the GST to maintain market share.Similarily, other overheads imposed by Govt are not all passed on to the customer.Business compensates by trying to be more efficient,but also by working very long hours.

It is very unfair of Govt to take so much and waste it so wantonly; and then have the audacity to keep asking for more.The private slaves have had enough.We should raise our sights above the treadmill and change the rules.I know that they like to keep us lean and keen,but there should be more rewards for those who take risks and work hard long hours.