Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Home Ownership) Share this | Hansard source

The thing I like about this government is it's consistent. It is consistently focused on being the best government for vested interests it can be. What it has done over the last two years is shovel policy and money to its favoured vested interests—the people that run the organisation of the Labor Party, the union movement, which runs preselections and supports the Labor Party at polling places and is the campaign force behind the labour movement. This government has spent two years of public office working for these narrow vested interests, and it appears the nation's economic problems will never be solved under it—which is hugely regrettable for the Australian people, who are stuck with this government in the immediate term. It means people have to pay more for things like rent and mortgages.

The questions I asked Senator Farrell today about the probity and governance standards that I thought the government would be interested in applying to the Housing Australia Future Fund, which the minister didn't appear to be across the detail on, are just another example of the government being totally relaxed about rent seekers being part of public policy formulation. What is most surprising is that the government seems entirely relaxed about this shocking conflict which threatens the integrity of the Housing Australia Future Fund; we have the president of the Labor Party also being the chairman of the Cbus fund, which has three CFMEU trustees on its board, and the government seems totally disinterested in these issues. I would have thought that the government, if it wanted to protect the public interest, taxpayer funds and its own reputation, would be interested in these issues because it would see the obvious conflict.

It is a howling conflict of interest for the government to be running a housing slush fund where it wants to co-invest and give taxpayer funds to the Cbus fund, which has three CFMEU trustees on its board and has the president of the Labor Party as the chairman of the fund. I would have thought that it would be in the interests of the Labor Party, let alone the interests of the public and the taxpayer, that these things be taken seriously. But what do we hear from the good minister Farrell today? Crickets. Absolute crickets—very disappointing answers. Frankly, I expected better.

The minister says the Prudential Regulation Authority needs to do its job. Now, the Prudential Regulation Authority is not in charge of the Housing Australia Future Fund, its probity and its governance. Nor is the Prudential Regulation Authority in charge of superannuation laws and board composition rules. Those are matters for this government, for this parliament, to turn its mind to. So that is hugely regrettable.

The government has huffed and puffed about how bad the CFMEU is. A couple of years ago the CFMEU were at polling places, helping the Labor Party win office, funding its campaigns. The first thing the government does when it wins office is abolish the Building and Construction Commission. But today apparently the government says the CFMEU are our mates; that is not the case.

The government talks tough on the CFMEU in relation to its status as a registered organisation and its status as a union, but what does the government do when it comes to protecting compulsory savings in a superannuation scheme? Nothing. And Minister Farrell's answer today is revealing. The government plans to do nothing to protect taxpayer funds invested in the HAFF which could be threatened by corruption in the CFMEU, through the Cbus fund seeking to invest in the Housing Australia Future Fund.

Then, more broadly, Minister Watt today commits the government to making no changes to superannuation boards. Minister Watt is committing to the 1970s model of equal representation, where employee groups and unions run the superannuation funds in the interests of the IR club, not in the interests of workers and certainly not in the interests of employers.

This is a corruption at the heart of this government. It is hugely regrettable that the government has taken no steps to clean the Housing Australia Future Fund and clear away the CFMEU and all its corrupt constituents.