Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak tonight on the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Trustee Board and Other Measures) Bill 2006. It is interesting to be speaking on this bill not only because the bill does a variety of things but also because it gives me and other members in this place some opportunity to venture wide while still remaining within the confines of discussing superannuation within the context of superannuation changes, particularly those relating to the budget. Superannuation is a very important area, and we have just heard the member for Rankin talking about the Intergenerational report and the impact that report will have on the future decision- and policy-making direction of governments and how we deal with people’s retirement incomes, particularly those of the baby boomers when their turn to retire comes, many of whom will retire soon. So there are many very important decisions, issues and policies to be considered not only by this government today but by future governments in this area whose importance I think is sometimes well and truly overlooked in terms of long-term planning and what needs to be done. I cast my mind back to not too long ago when Treasurer Costello was lording the greatness of the Intergenerational report. We heard from him at that time that this was the biggest thing, the biggest challenge, the biggest policy area for the next 40 years—this was going to be bigger than anything else that had ever taken place.

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