Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'll speak to the amendments in a moment, but, just briefly: the government may want to go and check the record about the way that Labor voted when we moved to ensure that staff, as opposed to students, couldn't be discriminated against or sacked in faith based organisations, because it might not be exactly as has just been outlined by the Assistant Treasurer.

With respect to these amendments, with respect to schedule 5 and schedule 5 only, this matter is currently before a Senate inquiry. The Greens are reserving our position on schedule 5 until it gets to the Senate. Our reasoning is different to the opposition's. We do believe that there is a case, in principle, for looking at values based investment in superannuation. Indeed, you can see around the country at the moment that very, very many people want to do that, especially with respect to investment in fossil fuels, ethical investment and the like. We think that matter has not got the treatment and the understanding from the regulatory system that it deserves.

The reasons that the minister just outlined with respect to some funds could arguably apply to others as well. But schedule 5, as drafted, does not purport to address this question of values based investment more broadly. It does not purport to deal with those questions that I've raised and what might be the appropriate way of dealing with them. As such, we want to put the government on notice that it cannot rely on our support for schedule 5, as it's currently drafted, when this matter comes before the Senate. We take a different approach from the opposition, so there may be a different way through when it comes to the Senate. The opposition did not put us on notice that they would be moving these schedule 5 amendments separately today, so our position is to reserve our position until the matter comes before the Senate. It may well be that we move our own amendments with respect to schedule 5 in the Senate, given the way things are at the moment.

I just want the government to clearly understand that we cannot commit to supporting schedule 5 in its current form at the moment. We are open to seeing if that matter can be resolved before it comes to the Senate; I'm just putting that squarely on the government's radar. The matter is, as I understand it, before an inquiry, so we will wait and see the outcome of that inquiry.

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