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

The government would like us to believe that this Treasury Laws Amendment (Your Superannuation, Your Choice) Bill 2019 is all about choice. But from the contributions that we're hearing today, and particularly from that contribution from Senator Rennick, I think we know that this bill is all about the government's choice to attack unions, to attack collective bargaining and to attack the retirement savings of Australian workers and their families.

The government says that this bill is all about choice: the choice to have your own superannuation fund. But what we all need to understand is that this bill actually removes the choice and the right of workers to choose their super fund collectively as part of their enterprise bargaining agreement. What we also know is that reports have shown that these collectively chosen super funds are really good. They're industry leaders and they can have big benefits when it comes to providing extra protections for workers and their families—protections like industry insurance; compliance and doing the right thing with super payments; above-superannuation-guarantee contributions; and also above-benchmark returns.

So this bill is actually less about real choice, as the government would have us believe, and more about the government's priorities—priorities of attacks on union members and their rights to bargain collectively, including for their own superannuation funds. And it's an attack on our superannuation system, one of the best retirement systems in the world. It's a system that, as we've heard today from the backbench—from Senator Rennick—some Liberals believe should be made entirely voluntary. We've heard before, from Senator Bragg, that the superannuation system should be made voluntary for people on low and moderate incomes. But today we heard from Senator Rennick that superannuation should be made entirely voluntary. Perhaps people who have worked hard their whole lives should just retire only on the pension, according to Senator Rennick today. That's not our view. Our view is that we should have a strong superannuation system and that people should be able to retire with dignity and with a strong superannuation balance, and they should be able to bargain collectively for the fund of their choice, when that works for them.

This government has failed to deliver on some of the key challenges that are really confronting the superannuation system—issues like superannuation theft, for example. That's something that this government has not been able to address or attack. They continue to dither and delay when it comes to implementing the recommendations of the banking royal commission, which submitted its final report back in February 2019. I don't need to explain that that was over 15 months ago. But, while the government continues to waste time on those critical issues, it has no problem whatsoever in keeping up its attacks on the rights of workers in Australia. We know that workers are better off when they're able to bargain collectively. Choice is a good thing, and I support choice; but choice needs to include the option for workers to choose their superannuation funds collectively. Surely the whole point of choice is to make sure that Australian workers are choosing the best super funds for them—the funds that deliver the best performance and the best benefits. Often, for many workers, that fund is one that has been bargained for and which has been chosen collectively.

In its 2018 review report, Superannuation: assessing efficiency and competitiveness, the Productivity Commission concluded that the default funds chosen by workers to be included in their enterprise agreements had performed very well. Eighty-five per cent of those superannuation funds achieved above-benchmark returns in the 10 years preceding 2018. Particularly for those working in a high-risk industries, like electricians and construction workers, collective bargaining allows them to reach agreements with their employers to do things like pay insurance—critical insurance that protects their incomes through their super funds. These workers would lose the ability to negotiate for these protections if this bill passes without amendment.

This bill, without change, could have unforeseen consequences. It could actually put workers at higher risk of super theft or of being put on lower-performing funds. The banking royal commission, which I'll remind those opposite handed down its report some time ago, showed us that a lot of wrong can be done in the name of consumer choice. We've seen how financial institutions used choice to take advantage of Australians, leaving them worse off. In the bill's current form, there's little protection in this bill for workers who could get pushed onto poorly performing funds by unscrupulous employers. So we need to be making sure that workers are not forced onto funds without fully understanding the consequences or forced onto a fund that works in their employers' interest rather than in the interests of the workers who are being paid that superannuation.

Additionally, over the last few years, we've seen just how much of a problem wage theft and the theft of superannuation have become in this country. There have been countless high-profile examples of workers being ripped off. In the absence of any real action from the government to address these issues, collectively chosen funds make it easier for workers and their unions to track compliance because, right now, it's unions who are doing a lot more than the government when it comes to tackling wage theft and super theft, issues that have serious consequences for so many workers. Every year, almost three million Australian workers will experience theft of their superannuation through underpayment or nonpayment. A calculation done for the year 2015-16 estimated the amount of unpaid super to be almost $6 billion, and those affected workers are going to be facing real hardship in their retirement due to this theft.

While the government is concerned about a perceived lack of choice, what working people are concerned about is getting paid what they're owed. This is where government should be focusing its priorities, because the consequences of employers being allowed to get away with not paying super are extreme for everyday Australians. Workers will face lower living standards in their retirement if the government doesn't set its priorities on this problem instead of attacking the collective bargaining rights of workers and their unions to bargain for a fund which they believe gives them the best protection. Often it is those in lower paid jobs in industries like agriculture, cleaning and hospitality who are most likely to fall victim to wage theft and superannuation theft.

The theft of superannuation is all part of a larger problem that Australian workers are facing—that is, wage theft. Much like the underpayment of super, this is an issue that the government say that they care about and will act on, but, in reality, they just give us empty rhetoric and no real action. We have seen countless stories of wage and superannuation theft in this country. This is what the priority should be for this government.

Workers show a huge amount of courage when they come forward and tell their stories. Each of these workers really wants to know: what is government's plan to do something about wage theft and superannuation theft? So far, the government has been entirely unwilling and unable to be the tough cop on the beat that we need to address the real issue that Australians are facing with their superannuation—that of superannuation theft, not of collectively bargaining for funds that perform well for those workers who vote for them.

In some industries, like hospitality, the theft of wages and superannuation has become a business model. In 2018, the Fair Work Ombudsman found that almost three out of four hospitality venues were noncompliant with the award. This is the problem that is out of control—not unions collectively bargaining for good superannuation funds—and this is the problem that the community wants to see tougher action on against corporate wage and superannuation thieves. Working people shouldn't have to work for their wages and superannuation twice: once when they go to work and do their job on their shifts, and again when they have to fight to be paid what they earned.

While the government pretend to take action on these issues, their real priorities are placed elsewhere. Senator Rennick made it very clear that the government's priority is attacking the organisations that fight on these issues every day—the trade unions. The government's priority is attacking the organisations that are focused on the real issue people care about, the theft of their superannuation, not on this government's constructed problem of workers joining together to make decisions collectively about what fund they believe best suits their interests.

Unions, like Labor, have a proud history of fighting for a stronger and fairer superannuation system. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the contribution that the Australian trade union movement has made, together with Labor, in establishing our modern superannuation system. It was through worker led campaigns that superannuation—once the preserve of public servants, senior managers, politicians and executives—became a universal workplace right and one that everyday Australians rely on to have a dignified retirement. Of course, we are committed to any changes that continue to strengthen the superannuation system. The union movement is rightfully concerned about this bill and another move against workers' rights to collectively bargain—to make the choice collectively that best suits their interests.

The Prime Minister called on unions to put down their weapons and work with the government to help ensure a strong economic recovery post the COVID-19 crisis. Perhaps it's time that the government did the same. They may have shelved their ensuring integrity bill for the moment, but they need to shelve their obsession with chipping away at the bargaining rights of Australian workers and chipping away at our strong superannuation system built by Labor and built by the campaigns of working people in this country. It is disingenuous of the government to bring on an attack against collectively organising for the superannuation fund you want, when they are attempting to put forward a view that they want to enter into accord-like negotiations with the ACTU and the union movement.

If this government really cared about superannuation, they would stop their attacks on bargaining and start to address some of the issues such as super theft that I've spoken about today. But the question is whether they really care about superannuation. We've heard from government MPs and senators, including, very notably, today from Senator Rennick, that they want to cut super entitlements and make super purely voluntary. We don't need to think too hard to figure out what that would be like. Voluntary super would leave workers who are in desperate situations paying more tax on the income they divert away from their super contributions, and they'll end up with less super when they go into retirement. Those on the lowest incomes and with the lowest super balances would be hit the hardest. With those sorts of ideas floating around the Liberal Party room, it's really not surprising that they haven't tackled the real issues in the superannuation system, the No. 1 issue being the theft of superannuation from peoples' pay packets and from their retirement balances.

Unlike many on the other side of the chamber, Labor is committed to a strong and fair superannuation system. Superannuation is a great Australian tradition, and, while we support the principle of choice, that choice cannot be at the expense of workers' rights to collectively choose their super funds. This can all be fixed with Labor's amendment. I call on the government to drop their campaign against bargaining rights and to focus on the real issues in the superannuation system.