What are the specific provisions of Australia's pension system?

Under the trend of global aging, whether the traditional public pension plan is sustainable has become a crucial issue, and the basic model and operating mechanism of the old-age security system in many countries in the world are undergoing profound changes. Australia's pension system reform since 1980s reflects this world trend. The World Bank's Development Report (1994) strongly advocates the three-pillar pension system, and once took Australia as a successful case. As a typical model, Australia's pension system has its own characteristics in system construction, operation mechanism and supervision arrangement, which can provide us with many inspirations. Before the 1986 pension system reform, there were two main types of pensions that Australians could receive when they retired, namely, pensions provided by the federal government and voluntary occupational pensions. The former is a kind of welfare enjoyed by Australian citizens who meet certain conditions. As a part of fiscal expenditure, it comes from the total tax revenue and aims to meet the most basic needs of life. Although the coverage is wide, the degree of protection is very low, and the replacement rate is only over 20%. The latter is provided by some employers in order to attract and retain some special employees or reward old employees with outstanding performance, and the coverage is very narrow. However, the accelerating aging process and the huge fiscal deficit have made the Australian government more and more overwhelmed, so the reform of the pension system is imperative. The focus of Australia's old-age security system reform is to force employers to provide employees with a certain proportion of occupational pensions, which are operated by private institutions. This is called "retirement pension". 1986, the ruling Labor Party reached an agreement with the trade union that due to the improvement of productivity and inflation, the employer would give its employees a 6% salary increase as compensation, but only 3% of it would be paid to employees in the form of wages, and the other 3% would be deposited into the personal account of the industrial fund as the occupational annuity paid by the employer for employees, which is the occupational annuity for the ruling productivity. In 199 1, the Australian government passed legislation requiring employers to pay approved occupational pensions for their employees. This is the famous super annuity security system. In order to ensure that most employees have enough pension accumulation,1June 1992, the "Super Annuity Guarantee Fee Act" stipulated the minimum standard that employers should pay to qualified occupational pension funds for employees, from 3% to 4% in 1992 ~1993 to 9% in 2002 ~ 2003. Super annuity covers most of Australia's working population, and it provides the largest proportion of old-age security in the whole pension system. Its implementation marks the establishment of Australia's three-pillar pension system, and the government, employers and employees share the responsibility of providing for the aged. Compared with Australia, the problem of providing for the aged in China is more prominent and acute. First, the aging in China is fast and high. China is the most populous country in the world, and the issue of old-age security itself is one of the important factors affecting social stability. The family planning policy has caused great changes in the population structure in a short period of time, making the aging trend more rapid. Second, China's aging occurs in the process of economic transformation to modern industrialization, which is obviously different from Australian industrialization and modernization. Developed countries like Australia are "getting old before getting rich", while we are "getting old before getting rich", so the contradiction is more acute and prominent. Third, China's aging and economic restructuring go hand in hand. In this process, the original social security system quickly disintegrated, and the establishment of a new system became more urgent. The hidden debt in the traditional pay-as-you-go system is intertwined with the arduous enterprise reform, which leads to high transition cost. The government is facing serious financial pressure and increasing financial burden in providing for the aged. How to build a healthy and sustainable old-age security system adapted to the level of economic development has become a key factor to determine whether China's economy and society can develop harmoniously and whether the market-oriented reform can proceed smoothly.