Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services. Will the minister update the House on action the government is taking to improve our superannuation system, to better secure the retirement of hardworking Australians? Why is it important that we act to improve the transparency of super funds and stop hidden annual payments to union and employer groups?

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fisher for his question. The Turnbull government is introducing a comprehensive package of reforms to Australia's compulsory superannuation system which is designed to protect members' money and members' interests. The superannuation sector manages around $2.3 trillion in retirement savings and Australians rightly expect the industry to be held to the highest levels of transparency and accountability. It is always very important to remind ourselves that this money is the property of each and every hardworking Australian superannuation fund member—not the government, not the industry, not the bank executives, not the shareholders, not the employers and not the trade union movement.

The government will be making changes to give the regulator, APRA, greater powers to investigate all superannuation funds and powers to prevent fraud and mismanagement inside funds, as well as making new requirements to force funds to be more transparent and more accountable to their members. Currently, APRA has no powers to make funds report detailed information about how they spend members' money. Now, clearly, that has to change. Today we have seen reports in The Australian newspaper which demonstrate exactly why these types of reforms are needed, detailing millions of dollars of hidden payments from superannuation funds to unions, estimated at around about $8 million per year.

According to The Australian, Cbus, the superannuation arm of the CFMEU, last year reported payments of over $1 million in sponsorship fees to sponsoring unions, which included the ACTU, the CFMEU, the AMWU, the ETU, the PTEU and, if that list weren't long enough, the AWU. How payments such as these are in the best interests of individual Australians who have their superannuation in these funds is entirely unclear. What these payments are actually paying for is in reality unknown.

When it comes to questionable payments by the AWU we need look no further than the Leader of the Opposition. When he was the AWU national secretary, $25,000 of AWU members' money was donated to his own campaign for the seat of Maribyrnong.

At the same time that the Leader of the Opposition was both campaigning in Maribyrnong and the AWU national secretary, he was also a director of AustralianSuper, who made sponsorship payments to the AWU. The Leader of the Opposition has made it very clear he will always act in his own political interests. We stand behind workers and we will act in their interests. (Time expired)