Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I appreciate your indulgence in allowing me onto the speakers list to make some brief comments. The Public Governance and Resources Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2015 is a good bill and a bill which is supported by the opposition.

In particular, I want to draw your attention to the provisions of the bill that affect parliamentarians. Currently parliamentarians are able to hold self-managed superannuation funds, and some do. However, the current legal situation post October 2004 is that parliamentarians who come into this place, although they can hold their superannuation in self-managed funds, may not place their 15.4 per cent superannuation into those funds. That is simply not fair, inconsistent and not reasonable. This is a good amendment which brings that situation into line with the situation for public servants and for any other worker around the country. It is therefore a good way of normalising arrangements for parliamentarians. It is supported by the Remuneration Tribunal. We should never make changes to any aspect of parliamentary remuneration or salary-like entitlements that are not either recommended by the Remuneration Tribunal or strongly supported by the Remuneration Tribunal, and I am pleased to say the Remuneration Tribunal was very keen to support these amendments, since they were required effectively because of an oversight by successive governments. I include myself, since I was the minister for this part of members' entitlements for three years. I have remarked that, if I had been aware that this particular flaw existed, I would have moved quickly to rectify it myself, since it is a gap in members' entitlements that should be fixed, and the change costs the taxpayer absolutely nothing. Labor always believes, and this parliament has always believed, that the issues that affect the conditions of members of parliament should always be determined independently by the Remuneration Tribunal.

There are two other matters which I will just bring to your attention and which I believe should also be attended to as a matter of urgency. They are simple and they involve no cost or a very low cost. It remains the case that members of parliament do not have any occupational health and safety insurance. This is a very low-cost measure and is simply something that brings parliamentarians into line with every other worker in the country. There is also the improvement of the redundancy condition so that it is in fact paid as a redundancy instead of being regarded as being in the nature of a redundancy, which it currently is, therefore carrying a tax burden which is then reimbursed later. There is no cost to the taxpayer from regularising the redundancy arrangement. There is no cost to the taxpayer from this measure and, with the support of the Remuneration Tribunal, I believe that we can attend to matters that are outstanding and that affect parliamentarians and our quiet enjoyment of this role, knowing full well that our superannuation and those other conditions that should be looked after properly can be looked after properly.

I make a final note that these provisions that we have made today are completely consistent with the probity rules that are enforced from time to time by the Prime Minister of the day. There are no probity rules that ought to see these changes, which are proper and appropriate, operating in anything other than public interest. I am very pleased the government have brought these forward, and I am very pleased to be supporting them.

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