Climate wars? Solved! Energy wars? Done and dusted. Culture wars? Sorted. The Albanese government’s blueprint is now clear: declare that the political issue you are proposing a far-left radical solution to is a ‘war’ and that you have now consigned that ‘war’ to the past. Thus, any opposition to your insane climate ideology is simply part of the now outdated ‘climate wars’. Equally, any opposition to the neo-Marxist madness of gender fluidity or critical race theory is easily dismissed as an irrelevant part of the now-concluded and unlamented ‘culture wars’.

And now, smugly self-confident, Labor is declaring the ‘super wars’ are also a thing of the past. Under this formula, attempts over the years by hard-working Aussies to hang on to their own tax-free cash as was promised to them is dismissed as some kind of ideological ‘war’ that has now been concluded. A war Labor has won.

In the movie Kelly’s Heroes, a gang of thieves uses the excuse of war to embark on a shameless robbery heist. Which is exactly what is going on here. Put simply, the Labor party is using the ‘super wars’ to embark upon a massive theft of private wealth. It can do so because – partly thanks to Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull – the public has been hoodwinked into believing superannuation tax exemptions are a ‘gift’ from the government to the people. And because this narrative is now widely accepted, it is easy for any government to find excuses to limit the ‘generosity’ of that ‘gift’.

As always, it is worth going back to first principles. Superannuation was introduced in Australia as a handshake deal between the government and the taxpayer. And that deal was simple and fair, namely: ‘You will compulsorily sacrifice a fixed portion of your hard-earned salary now to be yours when you retire, and in exchange you get those savings tax-free. The more you earn, the more you’ll have in retirement.’

As far as deals go, it was intellectually and morally a pretty good one. Most people don’t have much spare cash – most salaries only cover the necessities of a comfortable modern lifestyle. So asking people to sacrifice a fixed percentage of their income by definition meant that either they and their kids would miss out on some of life’s creature comforts or the individual would miss out on the opportunity to put that extra cash into a better home or other investment opportunities. The upside was largely on the government’s side of the deal – in theory, future governments would be better off because they would have lower pension payout requirements. So how to sweeten the deal to persuade individuals to put their money aside uncomplainingly, given that by the time they got their own money back at the end of their working lives inflation would have rendered it far less valuable than were they to spend it on themselves in the here and now? Only one way: make it tax-free.

A deal is a deal, and in Australia a handshake always used to be as good as a written contract. But not, alas, where government is concerned.

The rot began, of course, with the establishment of the industry super funds to help facilitate this process of stashing cash under the metaphorical mattress. After all, somebody ‘responsible’ needed to ensure that those plebs actually looked after all that cash they were putting to one side, rather than just leaving it to the individual to take care of. Recognising the rivers of gold that would flow from compulsory superannuation, Labor – who with the unions already had large corporate-style organisations in place – greedily grabbed the cash cow’s gold-tipped teats with both hands and have been milking them for all they’re worth ever since, with ex-politicians and union hacks appointed to industry super funds where they do little other than daily wipe the cream from their lips as surreptitiously as they can with their Gucci silk handkerchiefs.

As with so many things in our modern polity, the rot then continued when the Coalition betrayed its core constituency, the forgotten Australians. As Mr Turnbull’s treasurer, Mr Morrison introduced a ‘cap’ on superannuation savings, thereby not only breaking the handshake deal (something Mr Morrison excelled at) but also reframing the entire perception of superannuation. Now, instead of it being ‘your’ money, it was ‘their’ handout. And you should be grateful they let you have as much of it as they did!

But now – despite repeated assurances to the contrary during the 2022 election campaign – Labor intends to go double-dipping. Not content with the union-dominated super funds creaming it off the taxpayer along the way, Labor now plans to shamelessly raid your super nest-eggwhen you retire.

And so we have Treasurer Jim Chalmers announcing this week, ‘We want to ensure that the super wars that have been so much a feature of politics over the last 30 years are put to bed, and one of the core ways of doing that is to ensure that we have a legislated objective of superannuation against which all future policy proposals can be measured.’ And then, ‘We intend to normalise and ensure we have a sustainable system…’. Which is Laborspeak for, ‘Prepare to be robbed blind.’