It is very dangerous to allow your super to be invested in infrastructure
such as airports, roads etc as none of the feasibility studies take
into account the effects on traffic, passenger or vehicle, of large
increases in fuel prices.
They simply do not give it any consideration at all.
With four motorways going bankrupt already in Australia it is a risk too far.

.....Is it simply a matter of when you are permitted to rely upon the state for a pension? In which case, it is just another form of Welfare payment linked to unemployment. Why not simply call it that

Pericles, not even close, as most aged pensioners have worked all their lives and paid taxes. To deny them of their right to put the feet up is plain wrong. It's at what age is the issue and as our life expectancy increases, so must the retitprement age.

As far as cashing in ones super at will you say, it's money paid by your employer, by force of governments, in order to at least try to fund your retirement and, relive the dwindling public purse. If you want more, co contribution is available, but it may mean a holiday or two less. But that's a personal choice.

Bazz, while I agree motorways are risky, you have to remember our super would not require huge profits, so tolls could be much less and there would be no debt.

In any case, the horse has bolted on that one, so any move that way will be painful.

I still say it's time to tax money, not the money earners.

Rehctub,
There was an announcement just two days ago about a motorway project
I think in Queensland, the proposer is borrowing, from memory $4 billion
and Australian Super Fund is putting in 25% of the project.

It was on The Business on ABC just about two days ago. I will look on
the ABC web site and if I find it I will put it up.

Rehctub, here it is.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-24/queensland-motorways-sells-for-7-billion-to-private-consortium/5408322

The new owner does not have the power to increase charges.
So if traffic drops off they just have to wear the loss.
Glad it is not my son's super fund, he changed from Australian Super to
an industry fund.

You would have to be mad to put money into motorways.
Still, like one city in the US, you can plan to use one side as a high
speed light rail.

Abbott's big mouth is going to stymie any real changes. Hockey is projecting a budget for the next 10 years. With Abbott putting so many blocks in the way, it is going to take another election before the path can be cleared.
No cuts to abc or sbs. Gonski and NDIS abbott is bi partisan. No increase in GST. Lower taxes. He has stuffed any meaningful reforms what so ever. At 10 billion / month increase in debt there will not be any reform at all.

Dear Rehctub,

<<Yuyutsu, what I am saying is that employer contribution super, not your own accumulated super, should have been kept from the likes of industry funds, and now fund managers of the employees choice, who then gamble with the money.>>

But there's no difference, there's no such thing as "employer contribution": it's your own money which your employer is legally obliged to take from you and place in your superannuation. Then too, everyone is already allowed to choose how those funds are invested.

Sure, the whole superannuation thing shouldn't have existed to begin with, it's another immoral act of vandalism by government, but then isn't this what government is all about to begin with - a predator, existing for its own sake by sucking our blood?

<<So, at some point the trillions that are now accumulated, and will keep accumulating must be channelled into beneficial assets for the community at large>>

Well, I doubt the latter just as I doubt I'd have any cream left if I appointed a cat to guard it.

What I originally asked Bazz is how can I keep my savings safe, so I can grow old reasonably and independently. Ideally I should just be able to keep my savings in a safe, but then the government creates deliberate inflation to eat its value away and force me to invest it with interest (barely maintaining its value after tax).

That's because over the long term I couldn't keep what I worked for in bags of rice as the rats would get it, or in clothes/shoes because my size can change, in petrol because it's a fire-hazard, etc.

<<if we put a stop to the gamblers holding oir money, this trillions will come back, but may break many large companies.>>

Good riddance!

<<Which every way you look at it, we are headed for a train wreck, like it or not.>>

Of course civilisation-as-we-know-it is headed for a train-wreck. Bazz believes that it will be soon, in our times, while I'm not that optimistic, thinking that this blessed cleansing might even be delayed for another 300 years.