Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I want to reflect particularly on the member for Oxley's contribution today. He made some comments. I come from a background as a journalist where the facts are important when telling the story. We have seen an appalling display of dishonesty in this debate, talking about the coalition being pathologically opposed to superannuation. I want to put on record the comments of the Prime Minister just a few weeks ago when he said that compulsory superannuation is an important part of our overall social safety net. It is an important part of our retirement income policy. That is why compulsory superannuation will rise to 12 per cent by 2025.

On that note, I also want to put on the record the contribution in recent times of the Leader of the Opposition, who, I note, is not contributing to this debate today because essentially he has taken the view that proposed increases in the superannuation guarantee are funded from reductions in take-home wages and business profits. He has made that clear, absolutely. It is startling. Perhaps the member for McMahon is in some way undermining the Leader of the Opposition in bringing on this debate. It is very clear, as the opposition leader said in 2012, every superannuation increase comes out of workers' wages. We are concerned about all workers and we are concerned about building the future of all workers. Again, for the record:

Analysis suggests that, over time, superannuation guarantee increases have come out of wages, ....

That is not something we have heard from the members opposite in this debate.

But I also want reflect on the member for Lalor's contribution. I was quite stunned by some of the comments she made in relation to working women. One of the most startling differences between our policy and the policy of those opposite is paid parental leave. What an appalling situation it is that superannuation has been excluded for women on paid parental leave. That is a very poor reflection on members opposite's commitment to women and saving for women's retirement.

I had a conversation the other day with a woman who worked for Centrelink in Geelong. She said to me, 'Do you know the change made by the previous government that caused more alarm and distress than any other change was moving 60,000 single mothers, primarily mothers, onto Newstart. It was the chaotic way in which members opposite ran the government when they were in power. So we are concerned about building the futures of all Australians.

The member for Gellibrand, if you were concerned about building the future for all Australians, you would back my petition. You would back the East West Link. The East West Link will deliver 6,200 jobs. It is so important for Geelong, so important for Western Melbourne. The member for Gellibrand, the member for Lalor, the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Corio and the member for Ballarat are letting down their constituents extremely badly because they are standing in the way of one of the most important infrastructure projects in Victoria's history, and more than 6,000 jobs. Imagine what that would do for manufacturing workers in the member for Gellibrand's electorate and in the member for Lalor's electorate and in my electorate of Corangamite. So get out of the way and support the policies that grow jobs.

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