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

Context is relevant, Mr Speaker, and I accept your guidance. There is an important piece of work to be done on transparency and reporting in superannuation funds all across the country. Unfortunately, the politically motivated regulations that were introduced by the former government were all about the politics and had nothing to do with transparency. I ask the House to consider this: if there is something material that ought to be disclosed to members, would you stick it in the annual member meeting notice, or would you stick it in an annual report? Would you stick it in an annual member meeting notice that gets mailed out, or would you stick it in the annual report that is required to be disclosed to all of your members, to regulators and all the rest of it?

We want to have a discussion and reform job on reporting in superannuation, and we will do it. But it won't be motivated by the petty politics that dominated the coalition's approach to superannuation and, dare I might say, by the hypocrisy when it comes to the member for Fadden. We won't be motivated by that. We will have a reform job on transparency, but, to start, we have to undo the mess that was left by the other side. Why did we repeal the regulations put by the other side? Because they actually require funds to mislead their members. They were drafted in such an incompetent, politically motivated way, that they required funds to mislead their members, because, to report in accordance with the regulations, you would often have to double and triple count the same expenditure under various headings. So, it would appear to any member who is looking at the annual member meeting notice, trying to find the time and date of the meeting under 400 pages of documents reporting various transactions, that the same amount of money spent once had been spent like 10 times. That's what's wrong.

They were in such haste to execute a political agenda that they forgot to introduce one based on probity, one based on prudence. So we will reform the reporting arrangements for superannuation in this country, and we will do it on an even-handed basis, motivated by the best interests of members, not by the political and, might I say, the hypocritical rantings of the member for Fadden and of so many members that sit behind him. We reject the proposition.

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