David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to make a fine upstanding contribution to this debate in the context of our next speaker being momentarily detained. The Treasury Legislation Amendment (Repeal Day) Bill is obviously something that the Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation looks forward to attending to in just a moment. But let me say that schedule 1 to this bill amends the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 to repeal the pay slip reporting provisions. The pay slip reporting provisions in the SISA require employers to include in employee pay slips information prescribed by the regulations. It was intended that the regulations be made so that employers had to report on pay slips the amount of superannuation contributions and the date on which the employer expects to pay them. This is has not occurred. There are existing requirements in the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Fair Work Regulations 2009 for employers to include in pay slips the amount of superannuation contributions they are liable to make.

Schedule 2 of the bill makes mechanical and noncontroversial amendments to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to consolidate duplicated provisions, repeal redundant laws and move longstanding regulations into primary law.

Schedule 3 to this bill amends the Financial Sector (Shareholdings) Act 1998 so that persons who do not hold a direct control interest in a financial sector company will no longer be deemed to have a stake in that financial sector company solely as a consequence of their associate's direct control interest in such a company. Under the existing law, a person must obtain approval from the Treasurer to hold a stake in a financial sector company of more than 15 per cent. A stake is defined in clause 10 of schedule 1 of the FSSA as: 'the aggregate of the direct control interest held by that person and the direct control interest held by associates of that person.' Associates is widely defined in clause 4 of schedule 1 of the FSSA to include a person's relatives, their partners, related companies and other parties.

Where a person acquires a direct control interest of more than 15 per cent in a financial sector company, the associate of the person is also required to obtain approval to exceed the 15 per cent shareholding limit. This can be despite the associate holding no direct control interest or, indeed, any interest. While I am very keen to continue making these points, I must now defer to my colleague, who I know is far more intimate with the material.

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