Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to address the matter of the governance of superannuation funds. In the early 1990s, when the existing superannuation system was set up by the Keating government, the government took care to ensure that its friends in the union movement were entrenched at the very centre of the governance system of industry superannuation funds. Indeed, if you look at the boards of industry super funds, you see that union bosses such as AWU boss Paul Howes, Queensland ALP heavyweight and AWU strongman Bill Ludwig, TWU secretary Tony Sheldon and—until recently—Health Services Union officials Kathy Jackson and Michael Williamson are or have been on the boards of industry or public sector superannuation funds. These arrangements give the union movement a degree of control over superannuation which goes far beyond what the small and shrinking share of the workforce who are union members would seem to entitle them.

Today, around 18 per cent of the public sector workforce are union members, and around 12 per cent of the private sector workforce are union members.

Debate interrupted.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 12:05