Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would also like to thank the member for Indi for bringing this motion before the House. Likewise, I would like to thank my Labor colleagues in the Senate, who took part in the important Senate Economics References Committee, instigating this inquiry last year. I think the inquiry into the superannuation guarantee has started now, with particular focus on this noncompliance around the nonpayment or underpayment of the superannuation guarantee. It is important because it impacts on so many people's lives, and we also know the cumulative impact that the nonpayment or underpayment of someone's superannuation guarantee has for them in retirement. So it's a great pleasure that I'm able to stand and support the member for Indi's motion here. It not only supports the superannuation guarantee system as a really integral part of the retirement incomes for Australians but also really calls on the government to act on the full 32 recommendations of that Senate Economics References Committee inquiry and the report that they brought down.

A lot of serious work was done by people taking evidence from all the players involved, and yet here we are, some nine months later, really faced with a government doing so little to correct the anomalies that exist in the system. It is incredibly disappointing. I acknowledge that the government has indeed formed what it refers to as a 'working party', which comprises some of the important key players there, and that's a start, but I've got to say that that was like seven months down the track after having done nothing but sit on these recommendations. We now have the government purporting to take action, but really there is little movement that I have seen so far around facing head-on the issues of noncompliance, and that for me is the real nub of the problem here.

Like colleagues before me, I don't just see one-off cases. I see many constituents who have been burnt, utterly burnt, by a boss that failed to pay their superannuation payments. That I see many people should not be surprising. Stop for one moment to consider that there are 18,000 people in my electorate alone who we know have been underpaid or not paid superannuation at all by an employer. And the member for Shortland, before me, is spot-on to describe this as theft. Make no mistake: superannuation nonpayment is tantamount to theft, and I don't think we should dress it up as anything else. These are entitlements that were duly owed to the employees. These were part of working conditions hard fought for over many decades to get in place.

Those of us on this side of the House value superannuation. Labor created superannuation. We will stand here to defend it and protect it. It's a vital part of retirement incomes for Australians. But the other vital component of this system is that the employers hold up their end of the bargain. You've actually got to pay the dollars that your workforce is entitled to. You cannot leave these people hanging out to dry both now and in retirement.

I have an example which I will end on. One of my constituents is owed at least $10,000—it's hard to know entirely. He's one of nine staff owed around that much money by one company, and the fact is that he is unable to ascertain how much is owed. In fact the ATO entered into an agreement with his boss about the repayment, but that's secret; he's not allowed to know the details of that agreement, so no-one can follow up and no-one can make sure that this company finally does do the right thing and comply.

I made a submission to the Senate inquiry, and I'm eternally grateful for those two issues around it. Get rid of the secrecy provisions and make sure that it's more than just pay slips that people rely on to get their superannuation.

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