Richmond resident Annette Ryan, who featured on the Courier front page last month in her crusade to make superannuation laws more fair, handed over a successful petition to the Macquarie Labor candidate last week.
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The petition was at Cafe Relish in Richmond for a fortnight. While those with computers could sign it via Ms Ryan’s Facebook page, she knew a lot of older people didn’t use computers and would not have access to the petition, so she organised a traditional paper one.
She said she had a very positive response to the petition and had people shake her hand and congratulate her for drawing their attention to the super laws regarding age and monthly earning thresholds.
She handed the petition over to Macquarie Labor candidate Susan Templeman, with 160 signatures, who said she would pass them on to Bill Shorten.
Ms Ryan said she sent questions to both Ms Templeman and Macquarie MP Louise Markus asking them to:
- Remove the $450 monthly threshold you must reach before super must be paid by employers, and
- Remove age discrimination in relation to super so those over 75 who are still working can still make voluntary contributions to their super.
Ms Ryan said only Ms Templeman had answered her, saying if elected she would pursue the possibility of calculating earnings over a three-month period instead of monthly.
Ms Ryan now has a change.org petition running online as well, titled ‘Request new superannuation laws: abolish age/income thresholds’.
She was also chosen to attend ABC’s Q&A edition which was filmed at Penrith recently and which featured Bill Shorten, but she did not get to ask her question on super.