Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do understand that it is an independent body but the parliament of Australia makes law for Australia and we can make law that would instruct the Industrial Relations Commission to hold a specific tender to choose a default fund for each award. I think that would be the best way to solve the issue. We have already heard and we all would agree that the current process has some problems. I am not saying that it is the existing arrangements, but the issue is that getting the best deal for a default fund is kept in secret and there is no competitive force over a period of time as there would be if there were to be a tender process every four years. That is Family First’s suggestion, given the number of people who rely on the default fund. The government’s suggestion is basically the status quo—with some other performance criteria and some processes—but it does not go as far as calling a public tender for each particular fund. The opposition’s process is to leave it with the employer to make that choice, but workers do not have a say there either. Does that make sense to you? I am caught again between a rock and a hard place and I think there is a better way for Australia to do this if we think about it.

The Industrial Relations Commission is making a very big decision on behalf of a lot of Australians. That is okay but we should ensure that we have proper public scrutiny and that we have a process that is robust and that will deliver the best result on an ongoing basis. So every four years a public tender would be called for each specific award and I think that may go some way towards getting something that is between what the government is intending and opening up the process to choice and competition, as the opposition is calling for. I wonder whether you, Minister, could give some sort of commitment to seeing that happen.