Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Tax Laws Amendment (2010 Measures No. 1) Bill 2010. I hope that small business operators across Australia listened to the nonsense that the member for Cowper just went on with. We took this commitment about the superannuation clearing house to the people in 2007. It was part of our policy, we took it to the people and they voted in the Rudd Labor government. We are trying to implement our policy. Those opposite, in their typical obstructionist way, today are saying that they are opposing it. There are three-quarters of a million small businesses in this country, employing about four million people. Those people need assistance. They are burdened with the kind of regulation that the Common Market in Europe has, because of the idiocy and eccentricity of our federal system and because governments of both persuasions over decades have increased the burden on business. We are trying to assist small business. We took this to the people. They voted for us and they voted for this policy.

The member for Cowper says in this House that the opposition want Medicare to be a superannuation clearing house like other private operators. So they want Medicare, a government entity, to be in the market with respect to the superannuation clearing house industry. But that is a bit inconsistent with a policy that has been enunciated by those opposite with respect to private health insurance. As I understand it, they want to privatise Medibank Private, effectively a competitor, which is government owned. They want to privatise it and are against the government being involved in the private health insurance sector. But they want Medicare, a government operated entity, to be involved not just in the assistance of people with respect to health issues and not just in the superannuation clearing house area but competing in the marketplace as well. That is what I understand the opposition are saying. If their policy was to support some sort of superannuation clearing house, when, during nearly 12 years tenure on this side of the House, were they going to do it? When were they going to help small business operators? They did not. We never saw their legislation during their time on the treasury bench.

What we are trying to do here is support small business. Every single person who is a small business operator takes a risk. Deputy Speaker Slipper, I know you were in business before you came to this House and I know the member for Dawson, who is in the chamber, was also in business. He knows the risks involved. When you are involved in business you do not get much protection. You do not get sick pay or holiday pay, annual leave, leave loadings or penalty rates. You take a risk every day trying to achieve commercial success. Running a small business is tough, and we need to give assistance to small businesses, as I have said many times. We recognise and applaud the sacrifices of small business operators, because they are the backbone of the economy; they are the major employers in our economy. They are vital to the economic prosperity and financial security of the people of regional and rural Queensland, whom I represent. The contribution of small business to the nation’s prosperity and to job creation, particularly with the nation-building and stimulus package, can never be underestimated. It is immense. What we are doing in schedule 1 of the bill is introducing an operation which will assist small business.

The introduction of the choice of superannuation schemes in this country has been a positive thing for employees. It has given them greater control over financial security for their retirement and over the way in which their retirement savings are invested. Those things are crucial to their future. But we need to ease the administrative burden that is imposed on small business. Providing employees with choice has created another administrative burden, so to assist small business the idea of a superannuation clearing house is important. It will reduce the time and compliance costs for small businesses, which is crucial for their future. Payments will be made to a central location. The clearing house—and we think the appropriate entity is Medicare Australia, for reasons I will outline—will handle all forms of filing, checking and distribution and receipt of contributions. As we have said before, the superannuation clearing house service will provide these things free of charge for businesses with fewer than 20 employees.

Contrary to what the member for Cowper said, we have kept our promise. We have decided that Medicare Australia is the most appropriate entity, and I agree. We have kept that promise and we have committed $16.1 million over the next three years to implement it. We think it is important for small business, as I have outlined. The Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, the Hon. Chris Bowen, in his media release of 6 November 2009, said:

Medicare Australia is well placed as one of the Commonwealth Government’s key service delivery agencies—with significant electronic and payment processing capacity whilst ensuring the privacy of information and the security of funds.

He said that in the context of explaining why we have chosen Medicare Australia to be the entity that operates as the superannuation clearing house. As I said, the service will be available for small businesses with fewer than 20 employees from the middle of 2010.

This is another brick in the wall, another instalment, in our strong reform process to assist small business. The key features, as the minister said in his press release, will be that the superannuation contributions made to numerous funds will be electronically paid to a single location, the clearing house, which will process the transactions. Small businesses that choose to use the clearing house service will have their legal obligation fulfilled when they pay those moneys to the superannuation clearing house; namely Medicare Australia. As I said, it will be offered free of charge to small businesses with fewer than 20 employees. The superannuation clearing house will manage employers’ choice of fund obligations.

This is an important reform to assist small business. Those opposite present themselves and posture as the party that help small business. They do not. They say it but they do not put it into practice. If they believed in the reform that the member for Cowper was talking about, they would have introduced their version of this amendment during their long tenure on the treasury bench. They did not. It has always been left to Labor governments to be the reformist governments of this country. When it comes to business changes, we are the ones who brought in the superannuation industry, reduced tariffs and internationalised and opened up the economy. We did it all. From Whitlam’s day, through Hawke and Keating and now under Rudd, we are the ones who do it, not those opposite.

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