Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It will be good to get back onto the serious matters.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Braddon will ask his question.

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My important question is to the Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer. Will the minister advise the House on how the government is cutting red tape to ensure that people who are terminally ill can access superannuation more easily?

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much to the member for Braddon for a very serious and very important question. It should concern every single person in this place that, when we cut regulation and red tape, we are not simply serving to cut regulation and red tape for the sake of it or because it is holding back our economy and holding back innovation. It is also because it serves a very special purpose of making sure that those people who have very profound personal consequences of that red tape can in fact be helped.

The government made a commitment before the last election that it would cut, each and every year, more than a billion dollars worth of red tape and regulation. We have exceeded that commitment. In just on two years, the government has cut more than $4.5 billion worth of unnecessary red tape and regulation. Today in the parliament we brought forward a bill that is going to help terminally ill people access their superannuation so much more easily.

What would normally happen for somebody who is terminally ill who is given a diagnosis from, say, their GP and their oncologist and given less than 24 months to live is that, if they had unclaimed superannuation being held by the Australian Taxation Office, they would need to go through a very long process that would go for about three months. At the end of that process, they would need to pay fees to their superannuation fund in order to access the funds that had been deposited by the Australian Taxation Office. Worse, in circumstances where that terminally ill person had shut down their superannuation account because they wanted to access their funds for their families and for the treatment of their illness, they would need to create a new superannuation fund in order to transfer the money that was being held by the ATO.

Today we can say in this place that we are getting rid of those steps. Terminally ill people will be able to access their superannuation directly from the Australian Taxation Office, and not one fee and not one charge will be imposed upon them in order to do just that.

Importantly, as well, in this place we are going to make it easier for small businesses to make sure that they are doing the right thing by their employees. At the moment, there is a very severe calculation of the superannuation guarantee charge on employers who might inadvertently make a mistake in their payment of their superannuation guarantee.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You've decreased the fine for bad behaviour.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin will cease interjecting.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It could be because their employees have worked longer hours. Instead of charging the interest over the entire period of time before the Australian Taxation Office discovers it, it will just be for the period of time where that payment has not been made, making it better for small business and better for employees as well.