Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to indicate that the Australian Greens will be opposing the opposition amendment. In addition to the reasons that have been cited by the government—and I did want to have discussion with the government about this and have now done so to my satisfaction—the issue for me is the level of risk that small businesses around the country are already suffering in terms of the financial advice and financial services that are provided to them. I think we are all aware that as a result of the global financial crisis there is also a crisis of confidence about the quality of advice and the capability of a number of businesses in the financial services area. The issue here is that when small businesses pay the superannuation guarantee for their employees they provide that to the default fund, or whoever is managing the transfer, but they bear the liability for it until it goes into the major super fund wherever that money is directed in the end. If those businesses in the middle go broke or are fraudulent then the risk comes back to the small business owner, whereas if it goes to Medicare then the minute that the payment is made to Medicare the small business operator’s liability ceases. That is an important issue in terms of who bears the risk.

The second important point, in my view, is the one made by Senator Sherry. Coming from Tasmania, he is well aware of small businesses in rural and regional Australia. It is the case that many of them are not online and that they are not working with electronic transfer systems. I would hope that with the Medicare arrangements now in place many of these small businesses will use the opportunity for accelerated depreciation to become more electronically savvy, if you like, and to arrive at the greater level of efficiency that would come with that.

As far as I can see, we have got major clearing houses for businesses that employ more than 20 people. We are looking at small businesses around the country, and this is offering them an efficient and convenient way of dealing with the superannuation liabilities that they have to provide for their employees. We are going to a system where the amount of money that is being transferred is going to be greater because of the rise from a nine per cent to a 12 per cent levy. The risk associated with shonky businesses in the middle is in my view considerable and if we can do anything to reduce that level of risk then we ought to be doing it. If I was in a small business knowing that the minute that I transferred this money to Medicare my liability ceased, as opposed to transferring it to a middleman and then waiting to see when it went into the fund and knowing that it is at that point that my liability ceased, I would prefer to get that liability off my back as quickly as possible. That is why I do not support the coalition amendment and will support Medicare becoming a clearing house.