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

Isn't it interesting how afraid those opposite are of bright ideas? This is the season of maiden speeches and, thanks to a very successful election outcome by the Liberal and National parties on 18 May, you're going to hear a lot of new ideas from our bright new senators and MPs elected in that particular election, where Australians chose to back the Liberal-National parties and our candidates to continue to deliver a strong economy and to continue to work to ensure that that strong economy delivers local jobs right around Australia. We're not afraid of ideas, so you're going to hear a lot of different reasons why people have come here. On your side, you'll only hear one reason: 'My union has a view, and it wants it expressed in the Australian parliament.' That's all that your new senators and MPs will be contributing to this place. 'My union needs me to stick up for them here in this place,' Whereas our new members and senators have a whole range of things they want to see delivered over a period of time, and their maiden speeches are the time to do that.

What you shouldn't get confused about is a maiden speech by a new senator or MP and government policy—two very different things. We're not afraid of new ideas, and we look forward to discussing and debating the many wonderful ideas that have been raised—and some old chestnuts, as well, that always get dusted off and brought out at maiden speech time—over the course of our careers, but the government's position on superannuation is clear. It has not changed, and to try to use people's contributions here in their maiden speech—the philosophies that they've all brought, the diversity that our party rooms bring to this place—as somehow a proxy for government policy is just ridiculous and actually shows how desperate you are, how despondent you are at the result of 18 May.

Our government's policy on superannuation guarantee hasn't changed. Let me be unequivocal on that. To come into this place and bray on as if somehow we're going to dismantle the retirement of senior Australians on the back of someone's maiden speech is absolutely ridiculous. Our focus on superannuation is actually to get rid of high fees, duplicate accounts, underperforming funds and unnecessary insurance, because one thing we on this side of parliament want to see is that hardworking Australians get to keep more of their own money. We did that by promising income tax cuts and, thanks to this place passing those income tax cuts in the last sitting, more Australians—94 per cent of hardworking Australians—will get an income tax cut over coming years, getting to keep more of their hard-earned cash. We don't apologise for that. That is actually why we sought election and is actually part of our mandate.

Australians need to have confidence in our superannuation system and be assured that it's going to be used for its core purpose, which is actually providing income into retirement. Our government believes it's essential that the superannuation sector be managed with the highest level of responsibility and integrity for the benefit of members. If only we could be confident that the Australian union movement could be managed in a way that workers could have confidence in its integrity and that it was actually being focused on members' interests and not on the interests of the union thugs such as John Setka. I'm really looking forward to Anthony Albanese explaining how supporting the expulsion of Mr Setka from the Labor Party but not supporting legislation that would actually make it happen—