Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Recovering Unpaid Superannuation) Bill 2019. Of all the rorts that exist in this country, nothing compares to superannuation. With $3 trillion under management, $40 billion in tax concessions to the wealthiest 20 per cent of the population, $34 billion in management fees for shuffling paper and $600 billion invested offshore, superannuation is devouring the real economy. Furthermore, it is completely undemocratic. Why? Because no party ever took the idea of taking 9½ per cent of people's wages and giving it to someone else to manage to an election. Can you imagine if, back in 1992, Paul Keating had actually been honest with the people and told them that they were going to take 9½ per cent of their incomes and give it to someone they had never met, and they may or may not get it back until they're 60? Do you think the people would have voted for that?

Labor have a hide to talk about sports rorts when they are defending the biggest rort in town. The amount of money in super—around $3 trillion—is about 50 per cent bigger than Australia's GDP or the amount of money invested in the stock exchange. Despite this, superannuation works against so many parts of our communities. Our drought-affected regions are drained of money at a time when they need it most. How much of the money sent to the cities from the regions actually gets sent back to the regions? It is next to nothing. These communities need every last cent of income now, today, not sometime decades down the track. Why are rural communities that have no money reinvested into their communities by super funds subject to compulsory superannuation? That sucking sound is the sound of people having their pockets siphoned. I thought we were supposed to be a free country with free markets. Superannuation makes a mockery of that.

Superannuation also discriminates against stay-at-home parents; if Senator McAllister were here, I would point out that they are mainly women. Why should stay-at-home parents miss out on superannuation concessions because they have decided to raise their children and, like many are, be heavily involved in the school community? Having been a stay-at-home parent, I can tell you how important it is to have parents involved in the school community. Our teachers can't educate our children by themselves. Our schools rely on stay-at-home parents to man the tuckshops, run the fetes and help out on sports days. Stay-at-home parents can also help with aged care by keeping an eye on their parents, which in turn will relieve the pressure on our aged-care sector. Being a stay-at-home parent is also good for parents themselves. Really, do you really want to drink someone else's Kool-Aid all your life? I fail to see the logic or fairness of such a policy that punishes people for being involved in the community. Superannuation doesn't even help people on low incomes; in fact, it taxes people's income when their income is below the tax-free threshold. They end up paying 15 cents in the dollar when they normally wouldn't pay anything at all.

Why doesn't Labor stand up for low-income earners? Because trade union-owned industry super funds today effectively compensate unions for the ill effects of their collapsing memberships. Just when the rivers of gold that sustained the trade union movement for decades have slowed to a mere trickle, following a crash in union membership and lost fees, compulsory superannuation has today turned those golden streams into a virtual tsunami of cash. Therefore, perversely, at a time when trade union membership is at historic lows, especially in the private sector industry, unions' bank balances and the amounts they can afford to donate to the Labor Party have never been healthier—and it's all down to super. If trade unions really were the champions of the working class that they pretend to be, then, rather than simply passing buckets of cash to the Labor Party, they would abolish super today and let Australian workers keep their money. At the very least, superannuation should be voluntary, not compulsory. This is a view that I'll be putting to my colleagues for serious consideration. My own internal polling suggests it is a view shared by many, both here in this chamber and in the other place.

At the end of the day, super isn't working. When it was introduced in 1992, around 75 per cent of Australians got some form of the pension. Today it's closer to 68 per cent. Given tax concessions cost the budget around $40 billion, wouldn't it cost a lot less and be much more equitable to pay the pension to everyone, including stay-at-home parents, low-income earners and people in the regions? The false economy of all this, however, is that the number of people aged between 55 and 65 retiring with a mortgage has risen from 10 per cent in the mid-nineties to around 40 per cent today, and the number of people retiring without a mortgage has dropped from 70 per cent to around 40 per cent today. What do people now do when they retire? They cash in their super as a lump sum, pay off their mortgage and then go on the pension. In other words, superannuation is a false economy. It's an expensive false economy that bleeds the regions, stay-at-home parents and low-income earners to line the pockets of inner city financial elites, many of whom work for the unions. In the words of the great bard:

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

The aim of this bill is to improve the quality of people's retirements by having their full superannuation entitlement paid to their nominated super fund. This bill provides a one-off amnesty to employers who choose to disclose historical noncompliance. This is done by reducing the penalties imposed on employers who take up this amnesty and pay an additional charge imposed in relation to the disclosed shortfall. In order to incentivise this self-reporting, employers who qualify for the amnesty will face lower penalties than usual. The amnesty period will be backdated to commence on 24 May 2018 and will expire six months after this bill becomes law. The payment period covered by the amnesty is July 1992 and all subsequent quarters up to and including the third quarter of 2017-18, ending on 31 March 2018. No employer will be able to benefit from the amnesty for a superannuation shortfall that relates to subsequent quarters from 1 April 2018. Essentially, the amnesty is designed to address historical noncompliance only and is not available for behaviour that occurred after it was announced.

To further incentivise the take-up of the amnesty offer and return super entitlements to workers as quickly as possible, employers will also face higher minimum penalties should they fail to come forward during the amnesty period. It is the object of this bill to ensure that any employer who chooses to roll the dice on historical noncompliance by ignoring the amnesty will receive a far greater penalty than would otherwise be imposed. It must be made clear that this amnesty is not a free pass; it is a powerful incentive for employers—who, whether by accident or design, have failed to pay guaranteed entitlements to employees—to pay those entitlements in full as quickly as possible.

The Australian superannuation industry has noted in a submission to the inquiry to consult on this bill that since the amnesty was announced on 24 May 2018 there's been a substantial increase in business paying outstanding superannuation guarantee contributions. The evidence is clear: this bill stands to make, by Industry Super's own estimate, up to 2.85 million workers better off. In the face of such a significant benefit to so many hardworking Australians, how could this chamber, right down to the last senator, with a clear conscience not support this bill? Those opposite who aim to block this bill should think again or hang their heads in shame.

This bill further complements the Morrison government's package of reforms to improve super guarantee compliance through improving the visibility of superannuation guarantee payments to the Australian tax office, introducing stronger penalties for noncompliance and ensuring more reliable collection liabilities for unpaid superannuation guarantee in the future. Australian workers want this bill passed. I commend the bill to the Senate.