Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move opposition amendments 1 and 2, as circulated in my name:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (table item 2), omit the table item. [superannuation guarantee charge]

(2) Schedule 1, page 3 (line 1) to page 11 (line 4), omit the Schedule. [superannuation guarantee charge]

The Treasury Legislation Amendment (Repeal Day 2015) Bill 2015 is a disgraceful attempt to dud Australian workers by a government that does not believe in superannuation. These are the bad motivations that are at the very core of this bill that we are debating today. I will come to the government's embarrassing and humiliating backdown in a moment. But, first, let us deal with the issues that are absolutely at the core of what the government is trying to do now.

Our approach on this bill, as I have said before, is that Australian workers deserve to be paid the superannuation that they are entitled to, and they deserve to be paid that superannuation on time. It is disturbing but not surprising to understand that the government wants to weaken the penalties for employers who do not pay their workers super and pay it on time. It is also disturbing—but, again, not surprising—that when the government is confronted with an issue like this they discard the interests of Australian workers as some sort of red tape to be dismissed with all the other farcical parts of the so-called red tape repeal days.

This government either does not understand or they do not care that 690,000 Australian workers each year miss out on the super that they are entitled to by law. That is, every 15th worker in our economy is not getting paid the super that they are entitled to. That is worth $2.6 billion a year to Australian working people. That problem is growing by five per cent per annum, and it means an average of $3,800 per year out of the pockets of those 690,000 workers, which is $100,000 by the time of retirement for a 20-year-old worker who misses out on that amount this year.

The tax office describes this problem is 'endemic'. The audit office says that between 11 and 20 per cent of employers are non-compliant with their obligations to their workers. This is a big, growing problem, and it says it all about this government that when presented with these facts by the tax office, the audit office, by Trio Investments and by Cbus, they decide to make the problem worse. They decide to include it in some kind of red tape stunt. They decide to combine this disgraceful act with all of the other disgraceful things that they are doing in superannuation: abolishing the low-income super contribution, freezing the super guarantee—all of the things they are doing to strike at the very core of the retirement aspirations of working people in this country.

This part of the bill, schedule 1, that we are seeking to split out is one of four schedules. We agree with the other three components of the bill, so my amendment is all about splitting out this disgraceful act of theft from the superannuation balances of Australian working people. We support the bit about the terminal conditions, we support the bit about duplication in unclaimed super and we support the bit about disclosure as it relates to in receivership. But we will never support any attempt by this government to make it even easier for employers in this country to dodge their obligations to their workers. We will never ever support that.

I want to thank all of the people around the Australian community who have stood with us on this issue and who are about to win a terrific victory on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Australians. Together we call on the government now not just to perform this humiliating backflip that they are about to perform when the minister finally gets up here and agrees to Labor's amendments. That will be humiliating for them. But, more important than that, more important than today's humiliation, is that they abandon for all time these disgraceful attempts to dud Australian workers out of the superannuation that they are entitled to. Do not just abandon it today on the eve of an election. Abandon these plans forever, because Australian workers deserve better. The fight for fairer superannuation continues beyond today. It will always continue while those opposite are in government. They have shown their true colours when it comes to this bill, and we are right to resist them. The Australian people are right to resist them.

We are about to see a humiliating backflip from the government. We are about to see a victory for Australian working people and we are about to see the full farce of the government's economic policymaking machinery before our eyes. The minister is about to move amendments to the very bill that their speakers were defending wholeheartedly 20 minutes ago as an important change that needed to be made. We had the poor old member for Page stand up with his talking points and read out how important it was that we progress with this disgraceful act at the same time as the assistant minister sat over there about to amend it to cop Labor's amendments. It says it all that the Assistant Treasurer will not come and own this problem, and no-one else in the government will own this problem. That is why it is left to the assistant minister. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

See this speech in context