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

I rise to make a contribution on this very important matter of public importance, which is in relation to the competency of the Assistant Treasurer. I note the last contribution from Senator McKim. We also heard from Senator McKim on Friday, who set out some of the issues that members of this place have been having in their engagement with the Assistant Treasurer. It appears as if a deal with Mr Jones is not worth the paper it's written on. In relation to this minister's maladministration of this portfolio, there are a litany of examples which I seek to catalogue today for the Senate's consideration.

The matter before us is the FAR package of bills, which is about ensuring that financial executives are held to account under Australian law and that there are appropriate penalties where there are problems over which they preside. This bill has been totally botched by Mr Jones. This bill also contains the compensation scheme of last resort, which I would say is a very interesting idea indeed—that the Commonwealth should compensate where there has been a problem in the market which may have been caused by a market operator or may have been caused by a regulator not doing its job. The point is that Mr Jones, in opposition, campaigned for much higher compensation caps in relation to this bill, but when he introduced the bill himself as a minister he reverted back to the position that the coalition had in government. Mr Jones is again showing that he is unable to keep a position for a period of time.

When you reflect upon his tenure as the Minister for Financial Services and the Assistant Treasurer, Mr Jones's first priority was to strip transparency from superannuation payments to unions, banks and insurance companies. Mr Jones has chosen to remove transparency in a compulsory savings scheme, which is a remarkable turn of events. That someone would come into a new portfolio and, as their first act, remove the ability of a person, a worker, to see where their own money is being sent is a remarkable beginning.

Mr Jones has had another defeat today, with the government deciding it would remove from its own legislation the faith based carve-out which Mr Jones proposed in opposition. This policy was his main policy on superannuation. This is his key policy that he took to the election. A carve out from the superannuation performance test for religious based funds has been dropped today by Mr Jones after the Senate gave Mr Jones some advice. I note the contributions of Senator Smith and Senator McKim during the committee process. The Senate told Mr Jones that it was not going to be able to support this strange idea that someone in a religious based fund, of which there are only a few, should be prepared to accept a poorer return than a person in a non-religious based fund. It's a very interesting precedent indeed for someone who has spent most of their career arguing the virtues of compulsory super. If I was a great supporter of the compulsory superannuation scheme, I would not open it up to these sorts of precedents, because once you open the door to one idea that is not about the best financial performance of the fund then you open the floodgates to every crazy idea. And I can assure the Senate that there are many crazy ideas in relation to the expenditure of superannuation funds.

Today, we look at the Australian Financial Review and there is an article referring to Mr Jones which is called 'Stephen Jones is out of his depth.' It says here:

Across an otherwise competent frontbench, the Albanese government's Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones stands out like dog's balls.

In the six months since he took charge of the ministry, the Member for Whitlam has chewed up the furniture, rubbed his bum on the carpet and cocked his leg over his parliamentary colleagues, the financial sector and the voters of Australia.

That is in the Financial Review today. I think it's a pretty fair assessment actually of Mr Jones' tenure—having removed the transparency requirements for super, having failed to protect consumers in the superannuation sector, having failed to deliver any cryptocurrency reforms and now having lost his key policy—the religious carve out for the super funds. There are only two funds, none of which have MySuper funds. That is a remarkable tenure. He is maybe the worst assistant treasurer ever.