Bragg should be brought to heel for likening young workers to dogs

Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has likened young Australians to cats and dogs in a National Press Club address on 12 August.

In speaking about the proposal to extend the Superannuation Guarantee to workers under the age of 18 years, Senator Bragg declared this is the same as paying super to “cats and dogs.” 

Senator Bragg restated his insult to young workers on ABC Radio National this morning saying, “you’re going to have super for under 18s and soon you’ll have super for cats and dogs.”

In the same interview, Bragg continued his anti-worker crusade saying that universal superannuation, which provides dignity to workers in retirement, is “one of the biggest public policy failures since Federation.”

In reality, working people love their super and our superannuation system is the envy of the world and prevents Australians from retiring into poverty after a lifetime of hard work.

Quotes attributable to Joseph Mitchell, ACTU Assistant Secretary:

“Senator Andrew Bragg’s likening of young Australian workers to animals is nothing short of disgusting. Young workers work incredibly hard and deserve the same rights and conditions as all other workers.

“Young workers deserve their wages, their penalty rates and they deserve to be paid superannuation just like all other working people.

“Working Australians know they can’t trust their super with the Liberals. When the Liberals were last in Government they froze the Superannuation Guarantee, forced workers to raid their super to get by in COVID, and wanted workers to trade off their retirement to get into the housing market.

“Senator Bragg’s personal obsession with undermining our world-leading superannuation system must be brought to heel.

“Angus Taylor has already warned Senator Bragg about freelancing; he must ask the Senator to immediately retract these offensive comments and apologise to young workers.

“Australian workers love their super and won’t allow the Coalition to attack it for their own self-interested, anti-worker ideological agenda.”