Raiding super is a sugar hit: Here are five sweeter ways of getting $44 a week extra

September 13, 2026 — 5:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Real Money, a free weekly newsletter giving expert tips on how to save, invest and make the most of your money, is sent every Sunday. You’re reading an excerpt – you can sign up to get the whole newsletter in your inbox.

Last week we saw the enticing, vote-buying idea of being able to raid our super contributions, raised again. Previously a Coalition thought bubble, One Nation’s Pauline Hanson has been spruiking it this time.

Because gee it’s a sugar hit. Why lock up all that delicious money in a jar on top of the metaphorical fridge – to be seen but not touched for years?

Well, we all know about the dangers of tooth decay …

One Nation’s radical proposed super change would allow renters or mortgage-holders to receive 3 per cent of their 12 per cent employer super contributions as take-home pay, for three years.

The pitch is that if you are on $90,000 a year, you would get an extra $2300 a year.

So that’s $44 a week.

The trouble is that this would otherwise be invested for your long term.

‘The people’s money’: Hanson, Joyce defend proposed super shake-up

And not just anywhere: in the most tax-advantaged place possible. There’s basically 15 per cent tax on the way in, 15 per cent on earnings while in there, then usually zero tax on the way out.

In fact, the $6900 “bonus” over three years, that would no doubt disappear on day-to-day living costs, would mean $25,000 lost by retirement for the average 30-year-old, says the Super Members Council.

Yep, it would lose you almost four times as much when you’ll really need it, as you’d get now.

Super Members Council CEO Misha Schubert put it well:........

© The Sydney Morning Herald