One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has defended a plan to allow workers  to divert some of their super to help pay the rent or mortgage, despite it being panned by experts and the Albanese government.

Under the policy, announced on Monday, workers would be able to funnel a quarter of their super to their take home pay for three years.

Employers would still be required to pay 12 per cent superannuation, but super funds would then pay 3 per cent to people participating.

Hanson said the average full-time worker earning about $90,500 would get an extra $2300 in their pocket each year. She said the extra $4 a week would be “breathing room”.

“For a working couple earning $168,000 between them, it is about $4,300 a year after tax, or $82 a week, back in the family budget,” she said.

Hanson said anyone would be allowed to apply to alleviate cost of living pressures, because it was “their money”.

Party MP Barnaby Joyce earlier expressed the same sentiment in an interview with Seven’s Sunrise.

He said a growing number of people accessing super early was evidence they needed the financial boost. He denied people wouldn’t consider how the policy would affect them financially in the future.

“People are competent enough to work that out for themselves, and if people make that decision, people aren’t stupid,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“[Super] ain’t no national asset. It’s your own money.”

Hanson insisted the scheme would have a “neutral” effect on inflation.

“It’s neutral. You won’t pump up inflation with it at all. It will affect seven million people that will be open to taking their super out. So it won’t be inflationary,” she said.

“If it comes to a point of someone being out in the streets, living in a tent or can’t pay the bills in their home, I would rather see them get the help and assistance that they need now, not later in life.”

Currently, superannuation can be accessed before retirement only for compassionate reasons, such as for medical treatment, accommodating a disability, palliative care, funeral costs or to prevent a house being foreclosed.

Tax office figures show 67,900 early super releases were approved in 2024/25, amounting to just over $1.4 billion.

Industry body Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia said the idea was “economically disastrous” and would push up inflation while making people poorer in retirement.

“This proposal would not alleviate the cost of living. It would drive the cost of living higher. Allowing people to take out 3 per cent is the thin end of the wedge that could erode one of the greatest policy success stories this country has,” CEO Mary Delahunty said.

“Most Australians understand the basic economics. When you pour more money into a high-inflation economy, it makes everything more expensive. This proposal would not alleviate the cost of living; it would drive the cost of living higher.”

The Super Members Council said the policy to “turn super into an ATM would make battling Australians $25,000 poorer” and worsen cost of living pressures.

“This would belt battlers – not help them – by damaging their super and their retirements and driving up both inflation and interest rates which would make the cost-of-living pressures even worse, not better. We urge One Nation to ditch the idea,” CEO Misha Schubert said.

“There are smarter and better ways to help Australians struggling with housing costs – such as talking to your bank about relief options – and none of them involve telling Australians to raid their super and their futures.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the policy would cost workers.

“It will cut your super. This means less money and less economic security for millions of Australian workers. This will end superannuation as we know it,” he said in Canberra.

“This is exactly why One Nation poses an unacceptable and dangerous risk to Australian workers.

“Every time [One Nation MPs come to parliament], they don’t vote the way that Australian workers need them to. They vote the way that Gina Rinehart tells them to.”

-with AAP