Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I start this contribution on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Your Superannuation, Your Choice) Bill 2019 by reflecting upon the last contribution. There are a lot of smart people in this parliament, including, occasionally, across the aisle, but this is one of the places where the Labor Party has absolute decay of the brain. Some suggestions have been made here around reducing public costs—the super system costs so much more than it saves. I'm not sure how you can even begin to pretend that it is a net save to the government. In fact, the last Intergenerational report said that super would effectively not really make any difference to pension reliance, ever. Seventy per cent of people are taking a pension today, and that will be the same in 2050. So there's a lot of mythology in this space, and I'm not sure being lectured about being 'ideological' carries much weight. Coming in here and reciting what the unions say and what the industry super funds say and what McKell says—they're all the same people and they're all effectively benefiting from this scheme, which has enriched their organisations.

The main point here about super is that it is a very good idea. The idea that, over the long run, people take more responsibility in having savings to rely on in retirement and to improve their standard of living—something which is universal—is a great idea. The problem with the scheme is that it is being run to benefit the vested interests and it doesn't actually work. In terms of any reasonable judgement you could make here, is it going to reduce the burden on the public purse going forward? No. In this year alone, the scheme cost $36 billion. The last time the industry said, 'We're going to put a number on how much we're saving,' they said it would save $9 billion. So you're $25 billion out, noting that's an imprecise comparison. But the idea is good; the execution has been so poor. And why wouldn't we be surprised? When you go back and look at the history of this scheme, it was designed by the unions for unions. Peter Walsh, who was a Labor finance minister, said, 'This scheme will be a pot of gold for the unions, who'll get their feet into funds management.' That is exactly what it's done. It has been a significant failure so far.

The enterprise agreement is a place where the decay is really on show. Effectively, the way this works is that big business and big unions get into bed together and say, 'Okay, we're going to take away the workers' rights to choose their own fund.' If you go back to the middle years of the Howard government, when super fund choice was passed by the Senate after protracted negotiations, I think it was the then Assistant Treasurer, Mal Brough, who said, 'This is a deal that will give all working Australians the choice of fund.' The problem is: we're back here again, 15 years later, talking about the same issue. You know why? That bill had a loophole in it, which has been ruthlessly exploited by big business and big unions.

One of the things I did before I came into this place was work for the Business Council of Australia, and that gave me a fair proximity to big business. This is not about saying all the union guys are bad and the big-business people are great. This is a deal where big business and big unions get into bed together to rort workers. Mr Shorten was good at this on penalty rates, but taking away workers' rights to choose their own fund can only be for a devious purpose. Why on earth would we, in 2020, say you're not allowed to choose your own super fund? It is just bizarre. The fact that the Labor Party would defend this anachronism shows the huge decay on show here.

I'm sure that if most Labor members and senators looked at this on its merits, without the vested interests polluting their policy discussions, they would say, 'Of course we want to give every Australian the right to choose their own super fund; we want to allow them to determine their own destiny.' The way this works is that the big businesses and big unions get into bed together. They do these secret deals, and all of a sudden you find that workers have no ability to choose their own super fund.

The government passes a law and says: 'You, the workers of Australia, must save 10 per cent of your wages in a super fund. Most of you can choose your own fund, except for people that are covered by enterprise agreements, which steal your right to choose your own fund.' I mentioned this was an anachronism, but I have three agreements from 2020: one for the Warrnambool bus and roadways company, one for the Super Benefits Administration company and one for Smart Metering Services. All these examples have stolen these workers' rights to choose their own funds. The Warrnambool bus EBA says TWUSUPER and AustralianSuper are the only funds permissible. The Super Benefits Administration company says that First Super is the only fund you can go to. That's a CFMEU fund. This other one, Smart Metering Services, says Energy Super is the only fund these workers are legally allowed to contribute to. They can't choose any other fund; it is not possible. You've got to ask yourself why. Why would these organisations, the IR club, be trying to steal workers' rights to choose their own super fund? After all, it is their money.

We on this side are suspicious of the reason. There have been several independent inquiries into this issue. This is not some ideological journey. The royal commission into trade unions, the Murray financial inquiry and even the Senate inquiries have said there is no basis for workers to be banned from choosing their own fund. Worse, there is no basis for people to have their super fund choices stolen. You have to ask why.

There have been, helpfully, some whistleblowers who've come out and tried to choose their own funds. There's a fellow called Paul Bracegirdle, a Toll truck driver. He wanted to choose his own super fund. He didn't want to be with the TWUSUPER fund. He told the royal commission that he was legally denied the choice and told by the union official: 'Fuck off; no-one cares, Paul. Go away.'