Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

My questions are to the Minister representing the Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy. First, some background. In the lead-up to the last election, the government promised to leave the superannuation guarantee levy alone. In fact, the Prime Minister was adamant that he wanted to see more of workers' super going into workers' superannuation accounts, and he was on the record saying that very, very clearly. He then spent the next 18 months campaigning against his own election promise. As so often is the case with this Prime Minister, he says one thing and he does another. He makes a big announcement but he doesn't follow through. This time he made an announcement and then spent the next 18 months campaigning against his own announcement not to cut workers' superannuation. So it was with some relief that we saw in this budget that the government has left the superannuation guarantee levy alone for now—although members of their own backbench are campaigning against their government's own budget, which agreed to implement the government's own pre-election commitment.

We learnt over the last 48 hours that there are some unscrupulous large businesses in this country that are refusing to pass on those superannuation guarantee levy payments to their workers without demanding a wage cut from their workers. This is unconscionable. My question to the minister representing the minister for superannuation and the government in this chamber is: does he support these big businesses doing that? Does the government support big businesses cutting workers' wages to implement the superannuation guarantee levy? That is what they are threatening to do, and they should be condemned for doing it. This government and this minister should stand up today, use the opportunity and the forum that he has in this chamber today, to condemn those big businesses for doing that.

I want to remind the House that these are workers that have supported the Australian economy through some of its darkest days. These are workers who have not seen a real wage increase in over 10 years under this government. Real wages are going backwards with no plan in this budget for real wages to go forward. But, worse than that, some of these big businesses are threatening the unconscionable—to slash workers' wages to implement the superannuation guarantee levy rise. The government has a choice: do they back the big businesses or do they back the workers? It's a fairly simple question to answer. Whose side are you on? Labor is on the side of the workers.

Mr Sukkar interjecting—

I understand by the noise that is being made by the minister that he doth protest much. He has the opportunity to jump up right now and say, 'I am on the side of the workers, not on the side of big business,' but he's not. He won't do that because secretly they're cheering them on. Secretly, they are cheering on big businesses to slash their workers' wages to pay for superannuation. I want to remind all of those workers that this is a minister who is pulling in 15.4 per cent himself but saying to the workers, 'Nine and a half per cent is enough for you, and if the superannuation guarantee levy goes up you're going to get a wage cut as a result.' I mean, is this the best the government can do after 10 years? After 10 years of wages being frozen, at the first opportunity the workers have to get ahead, they say: 'It's going to cost you. You're going to cop it in the neck.' It's a very simple proposition: are you on the side of big business or on the side of workers? I want to hear from the minister on this one. I want to hear whose side he is on. He's got the opportunity in a few minutes to stand up and say which side he is on. Will he make a clear statement, on behalf of the government, to condemn the threats that are being made by big business today to go after workers' wages so as to pass on the lawfully implemented superannuation guarantee levy?

There are a range of other measures before the House today that, if we get the time, I would like to ask the minister about. But this is a very important issue, so I'll actually sit down early to give the minister the opportunity to stand up now and say, quite clearly: 'I'm on the side of the workers. I condemn what big business are threatening to do.'

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