Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) and (2) as circulated in my name together:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (table items 2 and 3), omit the table items.

(2) Schedule 1, page 3 (line 1) to page 8 (line 29), omit the Schedule.

These amendments remove from the bill the outrageous schedule which provides an amnesty for nonpayment of superannuation guarantee, an outrageous schedule which should be removed and should not be the law of the land. What is the law of the land is that employers should pay superannuation to their employees. It's part of their conditions, it is part of their wages and it should be paid. To provide an amnesty for the nonpayment of superannuation guarantee covering a period of not less than 25 years is nothing short of an outrage. There was no consultation from the government before they implemented this policy. It was not announced in the budget. There was no consultation with the sector, no consultation with the employees; in fact, on the contrary, the Senate inquiry looking at the very significant issue of under payment and nonpayment of superannuation guarantee did not recommend this. The government's own joint working party did not recommend this. We don't know who recommended it to the government. What we do know is that the government has adopted it with no consultation at all.

The minister at the table said in her summing-up that the government will take a very dim view of nonpayment of superannuation guarantee after the amnesty. I tell you what, the government should take a very dim view of nonpayment of superannuation guarantee at every point. No amnesty should apply to the law of the land. It is the law of the land, passed by this parliament that the superannuation guarantee should be paid. I know the Liberals and National Party oppose that—they didn't want universal compulsory superannuation—but it did pass this parliament. It has been the law of the land for 25 years.

We on this side happen to think that nonpayment of superannuation guarantee is a serious breach of the law, should be dealt with accordingly, and providing an amnesty to the nonpayment of superannuation guarantee is exactly the wrong move. I don't think this government's going to provide an amnesty for over-claims of payments of welfare. I don't think the government is going to provide an amnesty for things that they don't like but they are going provide an amnesty for things they don't mind about so much, and they don't mind the nonpayment of the superannuation guarantee. They don't think that's a big problem. What they think is that there should be an amnesty to let them off, to not only provide a holiday of penalties but also provide a tax deduction for the superannuation guarantee charge—a double amnesty for the nonpayment of superannuation guarantee! Employers should pay their superannuation guarantee. It is a fundamental right of employees of Australia, and this government should be ashamed of itself for providing this amnesty. We seek to remove it from the bill.

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

I'm very happy to respond to the member for McMahon on this. I think it should be very clear to everyone who is listening to this debate what frauds the Labor Party are on superannuation, what absolute frauds. This was the party under the Leader of the Opposition, when he was the minister responsible for superannuation, who uncapped fees and charges for people with low-balance accounts, taking their accounts to zero. He defaulted people—

Mr Bowen interjecting—

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister has the call.

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

into insurance within their superannuation accounts with these very high insurance premiums—again, taking their accounts to zero. You are frauds when it comes to superannuation. Let me remind the House the government is taking a comprehensive approach to superannuation guarantee compliance. In the Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Measures No. 4) Bill 2018, the government is cracking down on employers who fail to pay their workers their full superannuation guarantee entitlements with a comprehensive integrity package.

Under the superannuation guarantee integrity package, the ATO will have the enforcement tools it needs to detect noncompliance early and punish it going forward by appropriately including, in the most egregious circumstances, jail time of up to 12 months for employers. The ATO has also received dedicated funding of $20.9 million in the 2017-18 MYEFO to establish a superannuation guarantee task force to crack down on employer noncompliance, plus a further $133.7 million in the 2018-19 budget to continue to target those taxpayers gaining an unfair financial advantage over those who pay their fair share. This bill complements the superannuation guarantee integrity package. It provides employers with a one-off chance to come clean and to pay their workers every single dollar they owe them in their superannuation guarantee entitlements.

The Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and various organisations representing small business, commerce, accounting and the superannuation industry are united in support of this amnesty. The amnesty will, in effect, provide $230 million of superannuation, and interest, to around 50,000 employees who would otherwise miss out.

It is Labor and the unions who are standing in the way of these employees getting their rightful entitlements. And I do not understand why they would do so.

Elements of the amnesty, such as deductibility of late payments and the remission of penalties and charges, have previously been proposed, as a way to encourage self-correction of unpaid superannuation guarantee, by a number of stakeholders, including the Board of Taxation in 2014, the Inspector-General of Taxation in 2016 and the Superannuation Guarantee Cross-Agency Working Group in 2017. Let me be clear: the amnesty does not let employers off the hook, and it does not leave employees worse off. Employers will only get the benefit of the amnesty if they pay their employees their superannuation guarantee entitlements in full, with interest, and they voluntarily disclose their noncompliance—that is, that they are not already under investigation by the Australian Taxation Office. The only moneys that are given up to entice employers to come forward as part of the amnesty are the additional penalties and fees that normally flow to the government. Employers are not allowed to benefit from tax deductibility of the payments made during the amnesty.

It is important to note that we actually care about people being reunited with their superannuation. We care about this, which is why we have proposed this bill. It is why we've proposed our protecting superannuation entitlements legislation, as announced in the budget, where the Australian Taxation Office will now proactively reunite people with their superannuation funds that have been sitting in accounts that have been inactive, where they have been steadily eroded by high fees and charges and high insurance premiums—which, as I remind the House, was a measure that was actually introduced by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the responsible minister. The people on this side of the House actually care about people's superannuation. We care about superannuation, which is why we have engaged in a whole series of reforms to make sure it can be paid to them. We know it's their money.

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

The question is that the amendments moved by the member for McMahon be agreed to.