Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure today to rise to talk about the Treasury Laws Amendment (Improving Accountability and Member Outcomes in Superannuation Measures No. 1) Bill 2017. As a government, we are interested in ensuring the economic security of all Australians. If you look at our work over the previous years, it's been about delivering on a strong plan for our economy to grow jobs and ensure that all Australians, whether they are from regional Australia or capital cities, have access to well-paid employment. Similarly, though, as a government we want to ensure that as Australians near retirement they will receive their superannuation in a way that benefits their retirement. At the end of the day, it is Australians' money. Their employer puts it into their superannuation accounts every single week and it is there to accrue and provide for their retirement.

I want to thank my colleague Senator Williams for his earlier contribution on this bill around how sometimes industry super funds are used, or should I say misused, to fund election campaigns—the Leader of the Opposition's election campaign and so on. That is not the way that we want the retirement savings of hardworking Australians to be used. Through the passage of this bill, we are seeking to ensure that the governance of those industry super funds is appropriate, that it meets with community expectations. Currently, as we know, the governance model sees half of an industry super fund board being made up of employers and half being members of a union. I have looked at the Australian Super trustee board photo and there's a very young Billy Shorten and, prior to coming to this place, a Mr Doug Cameron and a Mr Greg Combet. We see that, with these industry funds, maybe it's a pathway to parliament.