Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

I am not sure. We had an interesting discussion at Senate estimates about the legal common law meaning of a guardian in the Australian context. I think Senator Brandis referred to one commonly understood definition that a guardian holds a legal power or authority over a minor or a person who is mentally impaired. When I heard the term ‘guardian’, it conjured up visions of Doctor Who. There are episodes of Doctor Who with these horrible creatures—I am not sure what sort of biological or mechanical creature they are—called guardians. Not daleks; guardians. We have this new terminology being brought into Australian finance governance. They are effectively trustees. We should call a spade a spade and call them trustees. I think this is an invention by an imaginative Treasurer to give it the imprimatur of something different when it clearly is not. It clearly is not different from the role or responsibility of a trustee, and there should not be this potential for ministerial interference on investment mandate.

I was reading an interesting paper on the Central Provident Fund of Singapore, which has been established with a contribution I think around the 40 per cent level. It is a truly massive fund. It is a bit like the Future Fund, only established a lot earlier and a lot bigger. Obviously, it is forced collection of savings meant for the retirement income purposes of Singapore citizens. I do not have any disagreement with that in principle. I will probably get a wrap over the knuckles from the Singapore ambassador about this, but the Singapore government, through its fund—and there is the potential for this in this Future Fund because of the ministerial direction—de facto controls the Singapore economy through the investment mandate. It directs the economy. It directs investment into a whole range of business enterprises that are owned, either outright or partly, and controlled by investment direction by the Singapore government through the Singapore provident fund.