Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Hansard source

You had your go and it was not a very good go. It was full of crafty doublespeak. You are normally better than that, Dunkley. Let us go through the attitude of the Liberal Party to superannuation. I love it when they get up and say—actually, I do not love it; it sticks in my throat—'We love superannuation.' Do you, really? Unfortunately, there is a thing called Hansard. Do you know what the member for Warringah, now the Leader of the Opposition, this great white knight of superannuation, said? He said:

Compulsory superannuation is one of the biggest con jobs ever foisted by government on the Australian people.

Do you know what he said in Eureka Street volume 5, No. 3, April 1995? He said:

Compulsory superannuation is possibly the greatest confidence trick of the last decade.

How can we trust the Liberals when they say, 'We love superannuation; don't trust Labor,' when, in fact, whenever we try to increase superannuation they vote against it? The mob opposite have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity on superannuation. The unions and employers and the Hawke government in 1985 agreed that workers would forgo a three per cent wage rise, and that is the only reason Australia has compulsory superannuation. Not a bead of sweat from those conservatives opposite has ever helped working people get retirement savings.

Of course, they had an opportunity in 1992 to say, 'Actually, we've realised we were wrong and we will in fact back superannuation.' Unfortunately, the historical record shows that they did not learn from their mistake in '85—because they are not historians and have never stood up for compulsory superannuation. David Connolly was a former member for Bradfield and opposition spokesperson on superannuation. Do you know what he called compulsory superannuation, which the member for Dunkley would throw himself on barbed wire and wade through boiling mud to protect now? He said it was a 'gross and iniquitous system'. At least Wilson Tuckey MP, former member for O'Connor, knew to speak his mind, even if it was not always right. He said:

I have to say of this superannuation guarantee legislation … it is both stupid and dishonest.

Where was Bruce Wilson when Wilson Tuckey was saying these things? Senator Alston, Liberal Party senator, doyen of the Liberal Party, great elder statesman and one of the thought leaders of the Liberal Party—do you know what he said?

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