Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The first act of any minister tells and determines the priorities of that minister. That's why we're disappointed that the Assistant Treasurer's first move was to water down transparency for the reporting, at annual member meetings, of expenditure by super funds.

To give an example, CSC—and I commend the finance minister for it—has fully reported all of its expenditure: $364,000 in partnerships for the year, and $698,000 in marketing expenditure. Let's look at AustralianSuper: $140 million of expenditure not outlined—$30 million in aggregate promotion and aggregate marketing; $12 million in aggregate remuneration; and $109 million in aggregate related-party payments. The AFR tells us, through an FOI, that in the last five years the super fund industry paid $85 million in non-donation payments to political entities, mostly Labor aligned, and none of it disclosed.

If we are going to have a conversation this week about transparency and integrity, and if it matters to this House, then how could the first action of the government on this be to roll back transparency of super payments? Senator Pocock will seek to disallow these changes in the Senate, and I'm looking forward to both houses regaining transparency when it comes to super. (Time expired)

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