By Shane Wright
Six years later, when he had moved to the backbench after his first failed leadership challenge against then-prime minister Bob Hawke, Keating first outlined what would become the country鈥檚 retirement savings system.
He said retirement needed to be based on both the age pension and privately funded superannuation, nominating 12 per cent as the contribution from workers towards their retirement income.
At the time, he hoped the 12 per cent would be in place by 2000, noting that at such a level it would provide a retirement income that would be 鈥渢he difference between a full, active life and a life governed by budgetary exigencies and the vagaries of politics鈥.
Keating on Monday said the superannuation system had now matured with the 12 per cent guarantee, delivering Australia the fourth-largest retirement accumulation in the world at $4.1 trillion, which is 150 per cent of GDP.
The Reserve Bank has estimated super will reach $8 trillion by 2035, when Australia will have the second-largest retirement base in the world, behind only the United States.