u/Doovies

I watched it and was really disappointed that many points about Australians utilising their super as an alternative investment vehicle or government piggy bank were substantially wrong. From someone who lives there, i'd thought I would take an opportunity to correct an apparent lack of research on HMW's part.

1- Yes our stockmarket equities are mostly invested through the banking sector. Just as American equities are a majority in the tech sector. Our default asset allocations provided by our super funds can be heavily diversified though. Australian banking exposure equates to less than 7% of all super annuation holdings, whilst the American 401k and IRA system's concentration is 30% tech.

Our domestic stock market allocation is 27% in the banking sector. This does not represent all super equity allocations. Likewise we have the ability to invest super as a self managed fund if we want less banking concentration. As far as i'm aware, Americans cannot actively manage their own 401k. If you choose to solely invest in australian sectors, of course, your asset allocation will be close to 27%. You can say exactly the same about an American that has solely invested in the S&P 500 and their tech stock allocation.

No one I know solely invests in australian equities and bonds. Or even has australian equities and bonds as a majority representing their portfolio.

2- The first home super saver scheme is not an emergency fund piggy bank you can buy a home with. It's your personal contributions only that you can use as a house deposit. Essentially, the tax deductions you make off of extra contributions are the benefit. You can't pull from employe mandated super. You can't even pull out the entire amount of capital gains made off of the investments. It's a tax efficient manner to save money outside of regular bank interest. With limitations on your yearly contribution allocations and a maximum amount of personal contributions to withdraw from.

3- Yes, we could draw a small sum from our Super during a brief window during covid. We also had in place measures to recontribute to our funds without exceeding our yearly cap. We have in place strict allowances to withdraw from super for medical reasons, hardship, and nearing end of life. This covid stimulus scheme was far less strict though. And should have really been focused for hardship ship reasons only.

4- No the Labor government is not tapping super annuation funds to pay for military spending. They are allowing the fund providers themselves to voluntarily invest into defence assets and infrastructure, then lease these back to the government. Using their own private capital. Our government has no way to seize our holdings for government spending. The Financial Review headline is grossly misleading. They are "tapping" into private and super fund investment. Not people's super itself. It's "quietly announced" because it's a nothing burger outside of government budgeting concerns.

To say that Super is a general purpose piggy bank is inherently not true.