Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

This is one policy, Senator Abetz, that I certainly welcome because of the interest I have taken in it. Today we have $18.8 billion in lost accounts—$18.8 billion spread across 5.8 million accounts. Importantly, when figures were first published back in 1999, there were just 2.6 million accounts containing $3 billion. So we have seen an extraordinary increase in lost accounts, both the number and balance. What is disappointing for millions of Australians is that they never receive this money. So Labor is presenting a very important reform involving the use of TFNs, tax file numbers, and what is known as autoconsolidation. I would point out that those opposite were in government for almost 12 years and they did nothing about enabling Australians to find their lost accounts.