John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President Boyce. Could I just take this opportunity before I start talking on the bill to wish you and all the other senators a very merry Christmas and all the best for next year. Could I also mention the staff, not only the staff who work so hard for the senators in this place but also the Senate staff, those who help with the operation of this establishment, who really work hard. It has been a great learning experience for me in my 4½ years, coming from the farm and small business and so on, always having the attitude of, 'Oh, public servants. They do nothing.' That was until I came to this place and saw them walk in at seven in the morning and walking out at 11 pm and midnight. They are also so professional in their work, and I would like to thank the Clerk and all associated staff for the wonderful work they do here in the Senate.

The Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Further MySuper and Transparency Measures) Bill 2012 is the third tranche of legislation implementing a recommendation of the Cooper review into Australia's superannuation system to introduce a new, low-cost superannuation product known as MySuper to replace existing default superannuation fund products. I will commend the Labor government for introducing superannuation many years ago, and, of course, following governments for maintaining it. I believe we are now heading towards $1.4 trillion put away in superannuation—a huge amount of money. Sadly, after the global financial crisis set in in 2007-08, with the crash of the stock market the value of that superannuation went down enormously.

Hopefully, with good times ahead, good government, and a return to success in the private sector we will see those shares return to some of their higher levels. No doubt by the time those who are very young—20, 21 and 22—come to retire at the age of—who knows: 67, 70—they will have a good stack of money put away to get them through their retirement and relieve the burden from the taxpayer. We know now of the shortage of government money. We see the government debt. We see, sadly, lack of business confidence in Australia. This is largely a result of many of the things this government has done, but hopefully that business confidence will return. Even growth has been forecast for next year and the year after, according to Westpac's economists. Hopefully we will return to those days of growth where people could fulfil their life's dream of owning their own home, putting enough away in their super and retiring where they could be financially secure without relying on the fellow taxpayers of our nation.

It is quite alarming, I know, being in small business and employing people. Super does cost. Of course, when it was phased in, workers did sacrifice wage increases to get their super in line. I want to make a point here about the talk of raising super from nine to 12 per cent and, even as former Prime Minster Paul Keating suggests, to 15 per cent. The former Prime Minister is suggesting a two-phase superannuation system, with phase 1 there to support those of the ages from 60 to 80 in retirement and phase 2 going from 12 per cent to 15 per cent, where three per cent of that money will be put into a government backed longevity fund to help pay for the needs of the over-80s. I have some serious reservations about that.

People work and put their super together. Who is going to pay for it to rise to 15 per cent under former Prime Minister Keating's plan? You cannot make business pay. Already we are seeing too many businesses in Australia trying to compete against overseas businesses where the labour is very cheap—places like China and other parts of Asia, as well as Africa, where we have a high Australian dollar which has been brought by money pouring into our country and being invested in Treasury bonds to finance the $253 billion gross debt that this government has built up. We see money coming here as our Reserve Bank cash rate is still over three per cent, when many of the official cash rates around the world are zero or just a bit above. So investors see Australia as somewhere they can get a good return, hence the market of the Australian dollar. The sentiment has been bullish for many years now and we have seen the Australian dollar trading by parity, making it very hard for people in rural and regional Australia who rely on income from exports, whether it be the grains industries, the export beef market or even the dairy industry, which produces some nine billion litres of milk each year. In Australia we only consume around 4½ billion litres a year, so we rely heavily on exports and that high Australian dollar is hurting us.

The point I make is that when we are tinkering with super and talking about increases, we cannot make the businesses pay for it. I remember when I was in small business that I paid my employees' super but I did not have any myself. A lot of people in small business are like that. As they should, they pay award and often above award wages to their workers. But often the owner of the business gets the smallest slice of the cake. They do not receive wages from the business when times are tough and they do not have super. I came into this place at the age of 53 years old with $1,650 worth of super, which is not much when you get to the age of 53. I put $4,000 away in a super fund during the wool boom of the late eighties-early nineties. Then I could not contribute anymore, and that $4,000 just shrunk down with fees until I cashed it in and put the little bit left, $1,650, in with my AGEST super.

Getting back to this legislation. The bill, as originally drafted, would have changed the investment strategy of many Australians by forcing the transfer of potentially large amounts of money from funds where individuals have made a clear and active choice about their superannuation to a MySuper default product, without the need for prior approval from the individual concerned. That is concerning.

However, on this occasion the coalition has scored a significant policy victory for Australians planning for their retirement who were at risk of having their savings transferred automatically, without their prior approval, to a government-legislated MySuper account—just automatically. The coalition has secured amendments from the government to resolve this and other issues.

Minister Bill Shorten wanted to rush this flawed legislation through in early October. But the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services did an inquiry and reported on 9 October. This is one of the huge criticisms I have with this government: rushing things. We look at the stimulus package, and the crazy $42 billion, where money was simply rushed out into the economy. We go back to the $900 handouts, which was to stimulate the economy. Sadly, much of that money went into poker machines or buying things like televisions and luxury items, most of which—in fact, I could say with confidence: all of those electrical items—were made overseas. It was a stimulus package for China; that is what the stimulus package was. And it was rushed, of course, through the school buildings program; with the absolute mess in New South Wales by the previous government managing that school buildings stimulus package. Small buildings, which I would say would be worth about $120,000, were being constructed at a cost of $330,000 and more.

There has been plenty of toing and froing over amendments in this legislation. That is what you get when a minister tries to rush legislation through. It was all too rushed. I ask the question: why rush in the MySuper? Is it about the super funds that the unions are involved with, that seem to be very friendly to the Australian Labor Party? Is that what was behind the original rush of Minister Bill Shorten, when he attempted to bring this legislation in some time back?

The current process for the selection of default funds under modern awards, initiated by this government and run by Fair Work Australia, lacks transparency. It is littered with inherent conflicts and inappropriately favours union dominated industry super funds. And that is a great concern: the union dominated industry super funds. I was a member of a union once—in February 1978. We had a drought in 1977 in South Australia and I went out shearing to pay the bills. It was not long after a state election in South Australia when the then Premier Don Dunstan was re-elected, and his campaign was 'Unionism is not compulsory'. So we were shearing at Carriewerloo Station, 17 miles out of Port Augusta, from memory—in fact, the shearing shed where they made the film Sunday Too Far Away, with Jack Thompson, which I am sure many people have seen. When the rep came in he said to me, 'Have you got a union ticket, mate?' I said no. He said, 'Do you want me to take it out of your wages or do you want to pay me now?' I said, 'The Premier said unionism is not compulsory'. He said, 'Well, it's not compulsory—either buy a ticket or leave the shed; take your pick.'