Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties I present the committee’s report entitled Report 97: Treaties tabled on 16 September 2008.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—Report 97 contains the committee’s findings on one treaty tabled in parliament on 16 September this year. The committee found the treaty, a social security agreement with the Republic of Finland, to be in Australia’s national interest.

This agreement is one of 23 social security agreements that Australia has concluded or is in the process of concluding with a range of countries. The agreement is designed to overcome barriers to pension payments arising from the domestic legislation of Australia and Finland. These barriers include requirements on citizenship, minimum contributions record, past residence record and current country of residence.

The agreement will provide enhanced access to retirement benefits in both countries and increased portability of these benefits. It will address gaps in social security coverage for people who have moved between Australia and Finland, help people to maximise their income and allow greater choice in where to live in their retirement years. Most of the approximately 2,000 people who will benefit from this agreement are age pensioners.

The agreement also addresses double coverage of superannuation. Employers in one country who send their employees to work in another country will be exempt from paying superannuation in the other country provided that they continue to make contributions in their home country. It is expected that around 400 Australian pensions will be paid into Finland as a result of the agreement and that some 1,800 people will receive a pension from Finland. These are pensions that would not be paid without this agreement being in place.

The committee has noted that the agreement will result in departmental costs of $2.6 million in the period to 2011-12 but that it is also expected to save the department $4 million in administered outlays. The committee considers that the agreement will provide economic and political benefits to Australia as well as benefiting Australian and Finnish retirees and has recommended that binding treaty action be taken.

I thank my fellow treaties committee members and the treaties committee secretariat for their hard work on this and the many other treaties we have reported on this year, and I wish them all the best for Christmas and the new year.