Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker, and I take your point that the bill before House does seek to amend this government's own policy, which was introduced late last year. It was a policy position that was motivated by the Treasurer's desire to achieve a surplus because the basis of this whole piece of legislation was to try to secure an improvement to the budget bottom line for the Treasurer. What we have seen, in the indecent haste, is a mess that now the House is seeking to clean up through the amendment. All of this would not have been necessary if only this Treasurer had the capacity to live within his own means and to live within the means of the government and deliver value for money to the Australian taxpayers.

In this search for every dollar that we saw at the end of the last calendar year, the government announced that it would shorten the time period before money could be considered to be lost or unclaimed. In bank accounts, for example, that time period would be reduced from seven years to three years; for life insurance, likewise: it was going to be cut from seven years to three years. For superannuation accounts, the inactivity period was slashed from five years to 12 months, after which superannuation accounts of unidentifiable members would be transferred to the Australian tax office. And superannuation accounts with balances of less than $2,000 and accounts of unidentifiable members inactive for 12 months were required to be transferred to the Commissioner of Taxation. Also, unclaimed property of corporations was to be counted as part of the Commonwealth Consolidated Revenue Fund upon receipt by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, not the companies and unclaimed moneys special account. But it was quite a bonus for the underlying cash position of the Commonwealth and hence the efforts by this Treasurer where the government were hopeful that these measures would net the government nearly $900 million over the four-year period to 2015-16.

As you may be aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, the government-controlled Senate economics committee inquiry was held into this bill and recommended that the government bill be passed but the coalition members on that Senate committee inquiry gave a dissenting report. What we are left with today is, as I referred to earlier, an effort by the House to clean up the government's own errors in the drafting of the legislation as to what we regard as a poor policy measure. The government has failed in its duty of responsibility to the Australian people to manage the economy in a way which delivers good value for money and also in a way which builds trust with the Australian people. We have ourselves in this situation due to the Treasurer's ineptitude, and I feel that come 14 September this year the Australian people will judge this government and this Treasurer very harshly not only on this measure but also on other measures.

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