Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move Australian Greens amendment (5) on sheet 5615:

(5)    After proposed item 13, insert:

13B After section 40

Insert:

40A Complying funds must not discriminate in couple definitions

                 Despite any other provision in this Part, a private sector fund is not a complying fund unless, within 60 days of the commencement of Schedule 4 of the Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws—Superannuation) Act 2008:

             (a)    the trust deed by which the entity is constituted adopts the definition of spouse contained in this Act; or

             (b)    to the extent that the trust deed by which the entity is constituted recognises members of the opposite sex as a couple (however defined), the deed also recognises members of the same sex as a couple.

Amendment (5) deals with the same issue that we have just spoken about, which is the fact that there is no guarantee under this bill for same-sex couples to have the same entitlements recognised by private superannuation funds, and this amendment is proposing to define whether a fund is complying based on whether it adopts the definition itself or refers directly to the government’s own act, which, of course, includes the definition because we have just agreed to that.