The Feds on both the Government and
Opposition side are busy pitching their agenda about how they will better our
lot in Australia. It is electioneering time already. Fair enough. I am curious
to see how Labor (ALP) addresses superannuation in relation to those
participating in the growing flexible shared digital economy.
Last year Labor elevated inequality
as the key issue set to differentiate itself from the Coalition. The 1990s Labor-Keating
era brought about ground breaking superannuation reforms ensuring for the first
time that all working Australians received super for their retirement. Whether
you are an executive or café waitress, a tradesperson or professional,
part-time or full-time, fixed-term and casual or permanent, every worker became
entitled to super.
This is great still. But the changing
digital economy is bringing about new categories of working producers falling
between the cracks.
Growing numbers of independent
contractors such as some of those in the digital shared economy exemplify one
way that the nature of our capitalist economy is fast changing. Governments are
slow to recognise the nature of this change and ways that it interacts with
Australia’s retirement policies. In terms of Centrist or Centre-Left politics,
it begs the question whether Labor remains committed to universal
superannuation – that is super for all working people.
The political powers are also surely
well aware that we are so, so far gone into the Post-Fordist era (i.e. as a mode
of capitalist production). Some of the jobs being created today rely on
flexible choices for participants on all sides. I reckon that’s partly how we have
less Centrelink queues – partly.
Perhaps this is not a space to delve
much into the character of modern capitalism with its aspects of flexibility,
fragmentation and individualisation as a way it makes a buck. Suffice to say
this change is real and not just confined to the private sector, it permeates
government operations and the Not-for Profit sector too.
So where is the Federal retirement
super policy falling behind? If Labor wants to ensure superannuation coverage
remains for all working people in the future, then Labor should make the effort
to work productively with relevant new digital industry groups in the shared
economy (peer economy) and encourage them that their cost structures capture
superannuation costs. That means emerging industry groups that use independent peer
contractors can factor the 9.5% super in their cost structures.
Imagine if the Keating Government had
decided that super be extended to unionised sectors or/and to those in
professional industries only! If this was the case we would not be where we are
today. Issues and consequences of inequality would be far pronounced today.
A challenge for any modern government
today in my mind is not simply how a country supports and secures the middle
class important as this is; it is also how you bring along vulnerable groups
while securing the broader economy. To me that was part of the genius of the
Accord. But that was then.
Now though that flexible,
individualised, and even fragmented modes of production are part of what makes
it possible to participate in modern production and generate incomes and wealth,
it is essential Labor take account of the conceptual big picture change that is
play.
I am suggesting that addressing
inequality requires a more nuanced understanding and collaborative ways of
working with those new industry groups.
