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

Thank you very much, Mr Acting Deputy President, for your protection again. If the CFMEU can back Graeme Samuel, get on board, boys and girls, because this is about fairness and ensuring those boards have the highest quality governance and the skill set that they need. Let's face it, if we look at the membership, you might park someone you are thinking about for a future Senate spot or it might be somewhere you quickly park retiring senators or members who may have no other place to go and still need to pay the mortgage. We need to have at the forefront of our minds, as we address these bills and the measures before us, how we ensure the retirement savings of working Australians in industry super funds are best acquitted. I think that is by increasing the number of independent members on the board.

I could go to more. We've got some support from David Murray and Gene Tilbrook, the acting chairman of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Fantastic. They might have something to say about good corporate governance and what that might look like. Does it require certain skill sets? Yes, it does. But let's look at what Gene Tilbrook actually said:

A system that is trusted with the retirement savings of all Australians needs the highest standards of governance ...

And that does not mean a 50-50 split; it means ensuring the boards of the industry super funds have the skill sets they need to deliver. We should all be backing that. We should all have in our minds ensuring that we are maximising the retirement savings of hardworking Australians. We can do that by increasing the number of independent directors and the skill sets available to those boards as they make those decisions. Gene Tilbrook closed by saying:

The inclusion of independent directors is widely recognised as a critical element of good corporate governance.

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