Barry Wakelin (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to speak on the Bankruptcy Legislation Amendment (Superannuation Contributions) Bill 2006. I will be very brief too, so, for any subsequent speaker, I let it be known that I will only be four or five minutes. As we know, the objects of the bill are to provide for the recovery of superannuation contributions made with the intention to defeat creditors, to provide for certain rural grants to be exempt from the property available to pay the bankrupt’s creditors and to make minor technical amendments to clarify or improve the operation of the Bankruptcy Act 1966.

I will address the second of the objects first because it is the one that I know a little about. In my experience within the agricultural industry, there has always been this doubt. From time to time, creditors have sought to confiscate, if you like, some of these grants that are made by government. Just to remind the House, they are grants pursuant to the Dairy Exit Program and the Farm Help Re-establishment Grant Scheme. The grants can sometimes be a significant amount of money when somebody has lost everything, and the intention of the government is to offer grants of up to $50,000—perhaps a little more—to assist people who at some point in their lives had significant assets but, due to a series of circumstances, have ended up with nothing.

This is the government’s way of saying, ‘We have empathy and, at the very least, there should be a limited amount of cash there to help you re-establish.’ This bill endeavours to protect that. As the minister said in his second reading speech, currently the act must be amended every time a new class of grant becomes available which should be exempted from a bankrupt’s divisible property. To avoid this, the bill will include a power to prescribe these grants in the regulation. As we know, the regulations can be made at the time that a new class of grant is created without having to wait for the act to be amended and laid on the table.

The issue of the official receiver in relation to other void transfers is dealt with under an interesting section of the act, 139ZQ. To remind us, the minister said in his second reading speech that because there is a risk that a bankrupt may move money out of the superannuation plan before the trustee has finalised investigations and instigated recovery action, the trustee will also be able to request the official receiver to issue a superannuation account-freezing notice to prevent any dissipation of funds. There will be time limits on the effectiveness of these notices to ensure trustees do not unreasonably delay a recovery action. The bill also makes it clear that a trustee of a superannuation plan who complies in good faith with a notice given by the official receiver will not be exposed to any civil or criminal liability as a result of that compliance.

The announcement was made by the Attorney-General and the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer on 27 July 2006. The amendments will apply to any contribution made on or after 28 July 2006. The bill will have little or no financial impact, and I understand that there has been an inquiry into the bill by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, which recommended that the bill be passed. For the purposes of the Bankruptcy Legislation Amendment (Superannuation Contributions) Bill 2006, I see no need to say anything further.

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