Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, shameful. To further ensure that only funds that are truly forgotten are transferred to ASIC, this bill also expands the ways in which account holders can keep their accounts active. It will actually ensure that an account holder can simply alert their financial institution to the fact that they are aware of their account in any way prior to their funds being transferred to ASIC. That can be something as simple as checking a balance online to say 'yes I am aware that my account is there', 'yes this account is active' and, 'no, I am not going to allow the process of the previous Labor government to continue'. Such an action will make sure that the transfer will no longer occur.

An account held by an ADI consists of unclaimed moneys if in the previous three years there have been no transactions in the account other than interest or charges, and they have not satisfied the notification requirements by, for example, checking their account balance online or on the phone or by specifically advising their bank that they would like the account to remain active. It will also stop ADI accounts being transferred to the Commonwealth where the account holder provides notification that the account should be treated as active after the account is assessed as unclaimed moneys at the end of the calendar year but before it is transferred to the Commonwealth—checks and balances.

The bill also exempts ADI accounts created for children—and hallelujah to that. I think that was the one thing that struck most of us with the previous Labor government's approach—the fact that they would actually take money out of children's bank accounts. It is unconscionable. It also exempts those that are held in a foreign currency from the unclaimed moneys provisions, eliminating the unclaimed moneys provisions which currently apply to foreign currency accounts and children's accounts.

Foreign currency accounts are generally used by sophisticated consumers to settle business transactions in foreign currencies. Transferring these accounts to the Commonwealth under the unclaimed moneys provisions requires the account to be converted into Australian dollars, potentially exposing the account holder to exchange rate fluctuations. Given this risk and the fact that these accounts are used by sophisticated consumers who are likely to know of these accounts, it is not appropriate to transfer them to the Commonwealth under the provisions.

Children's accounts are generally established often by grandparents—I am helping my grandkids.

See this speech in context