Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Recovering Unpaid Superannuation) Bill 2019. It's an extremely important issue for millions of workers all over the country—the issue of superannuation theft. While I have enjoyed listening to the care and concern presented by the self-proclaimed friends of the workers on the other side, I am grateful for the opportunity to share my concerns about this bill.

Every year in this country, almost three million Australian workers will experience theft of their superannuation through underpayment or nonpayment. In 2015-16 the amount of unpaid super was estimated to be almost $6 billion—$6 billion in theft of workers' superannuation. This has real impacts for real people, because the workers who are losing out on their super are going to face real hardship when it comes to their retirement as a direct result of this theft.

And that is exactly what it is: it is theft, and theft is illegal. In any other walk of life thieves do not get let off the hook, but that is exactly what this bill does. It lets companies that have stolen their workers' superannuation off the hook. The government wants to provide an amnesty for employers who have stolen superannuation from their employees. The government has proclaimed tonight that this bill is for workers, and that it's on the side of workers. But that is just not the case. The government should be on the side of the workers who have been ripped off. And they should be on the side of those hardworking Australians who would just like to save for their retirements and to receive the income that they've worked hard for. So the government should be sending the strongest possible message to employers that superannuation theft will never be okay.

Employers know that they need to pay superannuation—they know. I'm not sure what the excuse for not paying it is when the superannuation guarantee has been law since 1992. Hopefully, people who employ other Australians have figured out in the last 28 years that they need to pay super. Super is not the only obligation that employers have to their staff. It's not the only system that they need to follow, so to suggest that paying super is somehow more difficult and more complicated for employers than complying with other relevant laws is just absolutely bizarre. It seems that so many non-compliant companies don't make the same errors when they're setting their own salaries, their own incentive schemes and their own complicated tax arrangements. They just don't make the same errors when dealing with a range of other business practices and regulations that they seem to make when dealing with superannuation and their workers' wages.

By providing an amnesty for employers that have stolen from workers, the government is essentially setting up two different rules: one for employees, who have the book thrown at them if they're ever caught out stealing from their employer; and another rule for employers, who get let off for stealing from their employees. This should not happen. Employers should not be let off from paying their workers the legal minimum rate of pay in Australia today. This bill is sending out the wrong message at the wrong time. This amnesty is not good for workers.

It is also not good for those employers who do the right thing either. Time after time, when I meet with employers about the issue of wage theft, what they tell me is that they want a level playing field. They want all employers to be compliant with the relevant award and with relevant minimum wages and conditions. What this bill does is tell dodgy employers: 'Hey, we've got an amnesty, and you might just get away with underpaying your super.' If you're one of the many good businesses that play by the rules, if you're a business that looks after your staff properly, if you provide them with the entitlements that they're due, pay them correctly and contribute to their super, what do you learn from this amnesty? You have been put at a competitive disadvantage by those businesses who are not playing by the rules, who don't pay their staff correctly. The message that this bill is sending those employers who are doing the right thing is that the government just doesn't care about you.

We also know, because there is evidence about this, that the jury is well and truly out on whether these sorts of amnesties even recover the amount of money that they claim to. In some cases amnesties have been found to be counterproductive. By the Treasury's own data, less than four per cent of stolen super might be recovered through this amnesty. That is a small proportion of what Australians are owed, of what Australians are estimated to lose every year in stolen super. Every year it is estimated that three million Australian workers have been ripped off almost $6 billion in superannuation. The risk of encouraging noncompliance with the temptation of further amnesties into the future is just too high to justify this particular method of trying to recover stolen money.

The consequences of employers being allowed to get away with not paying super are extreme for everyday Australians. We know that if the government tells employers it's okay not to pay your superannuation workers will face lower living standards in their retirement. It's often those workers who are in low-paid industries who are at the most risk of being ripped off by their employers, whether it be in their wages or in their superannuation. They are workers in industries like agriculture, cleaning and hospitality. These are the workers who are most likely to fall victim to wage theft and theft of superannuation.

The theft of superannuation is all part of a larger problem that Australian workers are facing, and that is wage theft. And much like the underpayment of super, this is an issue that the government has been telling us that it really cares about, that it's going to act on. But, in reality, we are still waiting to receive the government's plan to stop wage theft. In this case of superannuation theft, what they're giving us is something that absolutely lacks any teeth to deal with the underlying problems that are causing theft of superannuation. It seriously seems like not a day goes by when there is yet another story about wage theft on the front pages of our newspapers. In each of these cases workers want to know what it is that the government is going to do about that wage theft, because so far the government has been entirely unwilling to be the tough cop on the beat that people need when they're having their wages ripped off by their employers. And in some industries, industries like hospitality, the theft of wages and superannuation—it is basically a business model for employers because they know they can get away with it, because they know there is no strong government cop on the beat in Australia today.

In 2018 the Fair Work Ombudsman found that almost three out of four hospitality venues were noncompliant with the award. This problem is out of control, and the solutions the government is presenting are just way too small to deal with the scale of the problem, and they are solutions that are sending the message to employers, 'We're going to let you off the hook for the wage theft that you engage in.' People should not have to work for their wages twice—once on their shift and again when they have to go and fight to be repaid by their employers.

While the government pretends to take action on these issues, their real priorities seem to be placed elsewhere. Late last year we saw exactly where those priorities were: attacking the very organisations that stand between workers and wage theft, that stand between workers and superannuation theft—the Australian union movement. The government, whose own integrity is currently in tatters, chooses to prioritise attacking the integrity of unions and their members rather than taking serious action on the theft of wages or super.

So, at a time when the cost of living continues to rise, when the government has already cut the age pension, what will the government do to help those who have less in retirement due to the theft of their superannuation? Too many Australians are retiring without adequate retirement savings, and that is why our superannuation system needs to be strengthened, not weakened. So if the government wants to do something to get non-compliant employers paying their super, then it needs to become a much tougher cop on the beat. If it wants to make sure people are paid what they're owed, then it needs to actually address the fundamentally flawed process for workers to recover their unpaid super today, a process involving the ATO that is slow and opaque. This is a process involving the ATO instead of a tribunal, where workers would have some rights to be heard and would have some rights to appeal decisions that are made. And if the government wants to put more super in people's retirement savings, then it needs to start moving the superannuation guarantee to its legislated 12 per cent. These are some things that the government should do if it wants to actually strengthen the superannuation system.

What we need to do is change the laws to include a right to superannuation within the National Employment Standards, because that is a change that would give people rights to pursue their unpaid super, to pursue the employers who are stealing superannuation. That would be a change that would give all employees the opportunity and the power they need to actually address the theft of superannuation. By placing super in the National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act—

Debate interrupted.