One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson delivers her 2026-27 Budget Reply speech in the Senate chamber at Parliament House, Canberra, on May 14, 2026. AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Pauline Hanson’s new policy to allow workers to divert 3 percent of their superannuation into their wages to provide a weekly income boost has been debated in the Senate, with Finance Minister Katy Gallagher saying Labor has no plans to support it.
The scheme would be optional, with the 3 percent contribution taxed at the 15 percent superannuation rate rather than workers’ higher income tax rates.
One Nation said the scheme would run for three years.
“Australians have been crushed by rent, mortgages, groceries, power bills, petrol, and insurance under this government,” Hanson told the Senate.
“Under One Nation’s 3 percent super pay boost, a worker earning $90,500 (US$65,000) could get an extra $44 a week by choosing to take 3 percent of their future super contributions as take-home pay, their existing super stays untouched.
“It is limited to three years, minister. It is their money. If Australians are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, why won’t you let them use a small part of it now?”
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Gallagher accused One Nation of wanting to end the superannuation scheme entirely, a claim Hanson denied.
“We don’t support weakening of a system that is there to ensure that people are able to live a dignified retirement and not be dependent on the age pension, and it is a long-term investment,” Gallagher said.
“We over this side of the chamber have done whatever we can to support people with cost of living pressures, whether it be in energy bill relief, rebuilding Medicare, cheaper medicines, building more housing, making sure people can get into housing in more affordable ways.”
Gallagher then claimed One Nation and the Coalition had not backed Labor initiatives on housing.
But Hanson put a second question to Gallagher, asking why the government had described superannuation as “a national asset.”
“Are you planning to dip into Australian super funds to pay down your trillion dollar debt?” she asked.
In response, Gallagher said Labor had inherited a debt forecast to reach $977 billion in the year it came to government.
“In relation to superannuation, yes, it is workers’ income,” she said.
“It is workers’ money, and it should be protected so that those workers who have worked hard all their lives, when they finish working, can have a pool of money that is available for them to have a dignified retirement.”
