Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government are now laying the groundwork for their failure to deliver on their legislated increases in the superannuation guarantee. That would represent a real wage cut for most Australians. This idea that there is some contest between wages and superannuation is the silliest proposition. It's the most transparently silly proposition. It's not real. For most people, their wage increases are set out for them in the award system. Their wage increases are set out for them for the next 12 months. For people who are in collective agreements, their outcomes are set out for them. In a period of record-low wage growth over the last three years, presided over by what passes for the economic team over there, the idea that you would also cut people's hope of a decent retirement position should horrify most Australians. What passes for what he calls 'philosophical convictions' in Senator Rennick's mind is a deep conviction of hostility to ordinary Australians doing better for themselves than the government allows. They are for cold charity and the government determining who gets up. We are for Australians working together to do better.

I have been horrified by what Senator Bragg, the self-styled expert over there on industry superannuation, has had to say about this. Just seven days ago, in a tweet, which is his preferred mode of communication, beyond books, with the Australian people, he said:

Keating told the 1992 ACTU Congress—

and the next part is in quotation marks, so he's indicating the former Prime Minister said this—

"You are losing your industrial muscle; I have given you the opportunity to take on financial muscle. You will get that through your superannuation funds."

Except Paul Keating never said that. He never said that. And there was no ACTU Congress in 1992. Senator Bragg said that Paul Keating said that at a 1992 ACTU congress. But he didn't. When one tells a lie, it needs details to be credible, but it's also really important that the details aren't so easily verifiable, because the important thing about telling a lie is that people don't figure you out so quickly. Senator Bragg has a history of making wild—it's hard to say 'wild' in the presence of Senator Rennick—untrue claims to further his argument. I'm not sure whether it's attention-seeking behaviour—I'm not talking about you, Senator Rennick—or because the ideas themselves are running out of puff, or whether it's just compulsive.

A government senator: Senator Bragg wrote a bestseller.

I'll take that interjection. It's a bestseller in pulping operations all over the country.

A government senator: Have you read it?

Yes. He said:

Make no mistake, industry super funds are on track to be the biggest political donors in Australia. They'll be bigger than the CFMMEU and Co.

Except, it's just not true. It's not remotely true. It never has been true. It never will be true. He makes the claim because it sounds scandalous. The truth is, if you review the AEC records—and the super industry organisations have done this—they show $25,000 worth of donations as far back as records go. The super industry bodies wrote to Senator Bragg and told him all about this in a completely verifiable way, but he's chosen to ignore that. Just for scale, or perspective, that's about three-hundredths of a per cent of what Clive Palmer spent supporting your re-election bid last year. Just for perspective, it's less than Senator Rennick donated to the LNP immediately prior to his preselection.

Government senators interjecting—