Australian superannuation

Treasurer Joe Hockey has said that perhaps Australians should be allowed to take money out of their superannuation to buy a house.

Superficially, this is a response to the ongoing crisis of unaffordable housing in Australia. But is smokin' Joe really just trying to feed the banks? After all, with a vast new pool of money available to leand money against, bank lendings would increase further and the size of laons - and hence the price of housing - would increase even further again.

Interesting to note that the bank sector has long wanted to get control over some of the billions of dollars 'locked up' in superannuation.  This would certainly be one way of the banks gaining control of this pool of funds.

All this while bank lending practices, predatory selling schemes, and issues like negative gearing go mainly unaddressed. At least one gonvernement minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has come out in opposition to this idea.