Where does it come from?
There is a strong, vocal, unquestioning (and hopefully minority) view that increasing super is "necessary". The people pushing this view can never explain why it is necessary.
Here are some recent examples:
http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1600462845http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1597456849/5#5http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1593668457/44#44Meanwhile, the average person is losing thousands of dollars from their savings every year just to fill out the required government paperwork. And that is before they pay for the conventional cost of managing the investment. At the same time, the government is complaining that the country cannot afford the tax breaks people get through their super.
I have a theory that this vocal minority has deluded itself into thinking that superannuation does not come out of their salary. This is because rather than being presented the same way as a tax, super is presented as being 'on top of' their base salary. So people think it is a freebie that comes out of the company profits rather than their own salary.
The company is not going to tell employees that their salary is being reduced, or they are missing out on raises, to pay for super. That would make them unpopular. Most of the well-written propaganda of course comes from the super industry itself - the people being paid billions of dollars a year to complete the government paperwork, and billions more to manage the funds. They are obviously rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of the government forcing everyone to hand their money over to them. They are already hoovering up about 10% of GDP.
There is also a strong link with the unions, who appear to view super as merely another tool in salary negotiations, and to hell with the consequences for everyone else - and for their own members when the union cannot negotiate a real salary increase because employers are sending their salary to superannuation companies. Unions are probably at the pointy end of the mindless, irrational compulsion, because being mindless and irrational is their core business.