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 158—treaty tabled 10 November 2015. I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.

Leave granted.

The report contains the committee's views on the Agreement between Australia and the Republic of Estonia on Social Security. The proposed agreement with Estonia is the latest Australian bilateral social security agreement, of which 30 have so far been ratified.

These agreements serve to coordinate pension payments between the signatories, and avoid double liability payments for persons working in both countries.

For Australians, the proposed agreement covers the Australian age pension and the superannuation guarantee. This means that an Australian living in Estonia who is eligible for an Australian pension or superannuation payment can receive that entitlement.

Also, an Australian employer making a superannuation guarantee payment to an employee working temporarily in Estonia will be exempt from any obligation to make pension insurance payments in Estonia.

Estonians in Australia who are eligible for either the Estonian old age or survivor pension will be able to receive that pension.

Australia has the sixth largest expatriate Estonian community in the world, although, in real terms, the numbers involved are quite small. In the 2011 census, 2,000 people indicated that they were born in Estonia.

In evidence, the Department of Social Services stated that, in the first year, 1,000 Estonians in Australia will receive an Estonian pension. The sum of money expected to be received from the Estonian government in the first year is $1 million.

The proposed agreement will have a net cost to the Australian budget of $4.2 million over the forward estimates. While this is an apparently large sum considering the number of people involved, the $4.2 million includes the redevelopment of the supporting software systems for all Australia's social security agreements, and should be considered in that context.

The committee recommends that the Agreement between Australia and the Republic of Estonia on Social Security be ratified and that binding treaty action be taken.

On behalf of the committee, I commend the report to the House.

In accordance with standing order 39(e) the report was made a Parliamentary Paper.