Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition does not support these bills. The reason we do not support these bills is that this government is completely obsessed with ensuring that its friends in the union movement get overall control, on this occasion over military superannuation and military pension arrangements. Why would it be, when only 41 per cent of public servants are members of a union, according to ABS data, that 100 per cent of employee representatives on the board created under this legislation will be ACTU nominated representatives?

Forty-one per cent of public sector employees are members of unions; 59 per cent are not. The majority of public sector employees choose not to be part of a union. Yet 100 per cent of employee representatives on the board to be created under this legislation—a board which also has responsibility for military pensions and military superannuation arrangements—will be ACTU representatives. Not only that, but also the ACTU president is the only one who can nominate employee representatives of the board. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation, who has responsibility for ComSuper, is not able to dismiss any of them without getting the agreement of the President of the ACTU. Why is that appropriate? I do not think that any reasonable person in Australia would think that that is appropriate.

This is yet another example of the Labor Party looking after the vested interests of the people who put them here. Every single senator representing the Labor Party in this chamber and every single member of the Labor Party in the House of Representatives has to be a member of the union, courtesy of the constitution of the Labor Party. That is why the unions have a stranglehold over the sorts of decisions that are made by this government on issues like this. It would be much more appropriate for employee representatives on the board created under this legislation to be much more repre­sentative of the diversity of employee interests, including the 59 per cent of employees who choose not to be a member of a union. But, no, they have got to use their time in the sun, their time in government, to make sure they lock in as many benefits as possible for the vested interests of the union movement. This is about lining the pockets of the union movement, yet again, at the expense of the public interest.

During Senate estimates we asked questions about the current Aria board. This is the board that looks after all of the public sector superannuation arrangements. There are seven people on the board. Three are guaranteed positions to be dominated by the ACTU. But guess what? It just happens that four out of the seven representatives on the Aria board are representatives of the unions, so the unions have got the numbers on the Aria board. Why is that? Because, other than the ACTU nominated positions, the government has made it its business to make sure that it puts another union representative on the board. You can laugh, Senator Feeney; I know that that is a matter of great amusement for you.