Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

From my office, I have been watching the contributions. I was hoping the member for Goldstein was still here, because that was a stunning performance and I wanted to let him know that. He has missed his calling. He is a thespian of the highest order, and, as the member for Moreton pointed out, the hypocrisy was simply stunning.

Labor has a very proud track record when it comes to super. Some of the previous speakers have outlined that. We will continue to fight for a fair superannuation system and play the role we always have with super in order to protect it and make sure that it's going to be there for Australians in their retirement. In the last two weeks I have been to two 100th birthday parties, which is unusual. People are living a lot longer. We have more and more centenarians, particularly in the Territory, which can be a bit warm and is not the easiest place to live at times. It is obvious that we are going to need to provide working people in particular—because it is their interests we want to ensure—with the ability to have the super funds to support their retirement. We created this world-class system and we'll fight to protect it.

We also support choice in super. We're committed to making sure that every worker gets the best possible benefit from their scheme. We need to ensure that working people are informed and that the information enables them to make choices that are in their best interests and not in the banks' best interests. Those on the other side want to protect the banks. We know that. Some of the previous speakers have made that point. They avoided the banking royal commission 26 times, and now it is clear that they are doing the work of the banks. But that's their wont. But let's just be clear about why Labor will continue to protect it. If time allows, I'll relay some words from a senior Territorian in my electorate who wrote to me recently on this issue.

As previous speakers have said, we're referring the bill to the Senate Economics Committee, which is sensible. We will reserve our position on the proposed choice of fund changes until the Senate committee has reported.

Millions of Australians are being ripped off by underperforming funds. This theft just boils my blood. Someone very close to me had an employer who for many, many years was not paying super, when they clearly should have been, and you'll never guess it, the person running the business was incredibly wealthy. The person probably couldn't spend, in the rest of their days, the amount of money they had accumulated running their business, but for years they were ripping off the super of this good friend for mine. Those opposite would like to extend the amnesty—it is not right. This theft is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. In fact, superannuation theft increased by 25 per cent over the years 2013-14 to 2016-17. It may have been even more, were it not for the banking royal commission. We just hope that some of these unscrupulous and unethical companies have started to change some of their practises, but we know that they, with the support of those opposite, will continue to seek every opportunity to take the funds of working people.

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