Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) to (5) together:

(1) Schedule 1, page 3 (after line 2), after Part heading, insert:

Corporations Act 2001

1A At the end of subsection 1017B(1A)

Add:

  ; and (c) without limiting paragraph (a) or (b)—any replacement of a kind specified in regulations made for the purposes of this paragraph of a beneficial interest of a class that is a MySuper product with a beneficial interest of another class in a superannuation entity.

(2) Schedule 1, item 9, page 12 (line 34) to page 13 (line 2), omit paragraph 29TC(1)(g), substitute:

  (g) a beneficial interest of that class in the fund cannot be replaced with a beneficial interest of another class in the fund, unless the person who holds the interest consents in writing to that replacement no more than 30 days before it occurs; and

(3) Schedule 1, item 9, page 13 (lines 6 to 8), omit subparagraph 29TC(1)(h)(i).

(4) Schedule 1, item 9, page 13 (line 9), omit "otherwise".

(5) Schedule 1, item 9, page 13 (line 12), after "new interest", insert "no more than 30 days before it occurs".

I will be supporting the MySuper legislation. It is a very good way of offering better protections for Australians. There is one issue, though, which could do with some improvement, and it is to address the situation where a worker leaves their employment and has not made arrangements to take their MySuper fund with them. At the moment, there is nothing stopping the fund flipping them into a higher fee account without their knowledge, and this would mean that it is quite possible that a person, by the time they find out that their superannuation fund has been moved into a higher fee fund, may have lost several hundred dollars of their savings in fees. In fact, some research has suggested that it could be somewhere in the order of $300 per year. The amendments will stop that process happening without the employee's consent. It will still be possible for the fund to switch them from one MySuper account to another, but it would need the employee's consent first to do that.

These are, I think, fair amendments. They will not stop superannuation funds changing products if that is found to be necessary, but they will mean that, for the many thousands of people who shift jobs—and, with higher turnover in the workforce, there are many people who are in that situation of shifting jobs—without having made prior arrangements about their super, their super will be protected in the fund they were in, and it will be protected in the fund they were in unless they decide otherwise. So they are sensible amendments, and I commend them to the House.

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