Financial commentator Scott Pape, known as the Barefoot Investor, has strongly criticised a proposal from Pauline Hanson's One Nation party that would let renters and mortgage holders draw down three per cent of their superannuation as extra take-home pay for up to three years. Pape argues the scheme differs fundamentally from existing rules that permit early super access only in narrow, last-resort circumstances, warning it would encourage people to sacrifice long-term retirement savings for short-term spending and could leave millions worse off in old age.

Under the plan, a couple earning a combined $168,000 would take home roughly $4,300 more a year ($82 a week), while an individual on $90,500 would gain about $2,300 annually ($44 a week). Pape illustrated the risks by recounting a woman who withdrew her super during Covid for cosmetic surgery and now regrets it, and he cautioned that giving households more spending cash could fuel inflation and higher interest rates. He also mocked One Nation's Barnaby Joyce for dismissing questions about the policy's long-term impact, while the Albanese Government's Treasurer Jim Chalmers separately branded the plan "crazy", citing modelling suggesting a 25-year-old withdrawing funds now could lose around $3 in retirement savings for every dollar taken out.