Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

It is a good analogy. Legs in the air, getting a tummy scratch by the Prime Minister, because they fall in line with her all the time. They have never really voted against anything that would cause this government any grief.

The coalition opposes this bill because we do not want this to be added to the growing list of embarrassing examples where transparency has been discarded for political expediency. And we know what they are: the formulation of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax; and the failure of the Labor government to deliver on the single promise with the country Independents to introduce spatial accounting, to help understand federal expenditure in the regions of Australia. I will just briefly expand on that, because this is part of the transparency. With great fanfare the Independent members said that, along with Minister Crean, they would involve themselves in what is called spatial accounting, so that we could see where the money was spent in each electorate in the regions. We have asked the questions now, and they cannot do it. I think it is that they do not want to do it. And how about the bungling of the Australia Network tender; the reversal on the carbon tax floor price; and the ongoing deals with the Greens to maintain power. It is all part of a shambolic government, and this legislation is part of that.

In addition, yesterday I spoke with industry people and industry sources about this issue and they are deeply concerned about the speed with which this bill has been rushed through the parliament without proper scrutiny. One of the unintended consequences raised with me was the implication involving insurance policies associated with superannuation funds. Many Australians with superannuation accounts have health insurance policies connected their super policies. A client's ability to lodge a claim through their policy would be taken away if their account were claimed by the Commonwealth after remaining inactive for several years. The fact that it is inactive does not mean to say that the health funds still could not come out of funds that were in there. This has massive implications for many Australians, and the government should respect the fact that their suggested legislative amendments need to be adequately scrutinised to ensure their actions do not lead to negative outcomes for Australians. (Time expired)

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