Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

There's something really rotten going on here. But I think it's really important, before we begin the discussion about what rotten things are going on, to reflect on the many very good people that work in superannuation and the many very good people that are members of superannuation funds. Indeed, I've had a lot to do with Cbus and other superannuation funds over my time here and before I came to this place, and there is good work being done out there to make sure that Australians have a chance at a better retirement. This is not a discussion about those people. It is not a discussion about the people that work for Cbus either—and there are many good people who do that. But they should know what is going on here because there is this weird, cosy, uncomfortable and inappropriate relationship that is clearly going on between the highest echelons of Cbus and the Labor government. Our concern is that the Labor government is more concerned about what's important to Cbus—and indeed, more importantly, to the unions associated with Cbus, particularly the CFMEU—than it is with what is important and what matters to ordinary Australians that rely on both the government, and its integrity, and organisations that its money is invested in, like industry superannuation, like any superannuation fund, like Cbus, to behave to the highest possible standards—and that's not what's happened here.

There are plenty of opportunities that the Treasurer has had to address those issues that are important to ordinary Australians. Inflation is running out of control, economic growth is stagnating in this country and productivity is going backwards, yet he seems to spend an inordinate amount of time in cahoots with his former boss—who is also the chair of Cbus—and making false claims to this chamber in the process. That is uncomfortable, and it should be uncomfortable, and it should be called out by this chamber.

Back in March 2023 my colleague Senator Bragg did something pretty basic, something that pretty much all of us have done at some stage; he sent a freedom-of-information request to the Treasurer requesting all communications between Cbus Super—and let's remember that Cbus Super's chair is Wayne Swan, the former Treasurer of the country and the former boss of the current Treasurer. He requested all communications with Cbus since the last federal election. Six months later Senator Bragg finally received those documents, but they were heavily redacted as to make them unintelligible. They included a redacted email sent by Cbus to the Treasurer's office on 24 November 2022, just a few days before the Cbus chair, Wayne Swan, publicly committed half a billion dollars of superannuation members' money for involvement with Labor's proposed Housing Australia Future Fund. That commitment came before any exposure draft legislation on the HAFF had been released by the Treasury.

On 17 October 2023 the Senate agreed to an order for the production of documents requiring the Treasurer to release those documents unredacted, but on 6 November the same year the Treasurer, via the minister here, responded to that order by claiming public interest immunity over the documents. In that claim the Treasurer said that the disclosure of certain information relating to Cbus Super would be contrary to the public interest because it would disclose commercial-in-confidence information. In the Treasurer's letter to the Senate, he said that disclosure would provide an unfair insight into Cbus's private opinions and that that would have the potential to damage their commercial affairs. Well, we know that that was not commercial-in-confidence information and that that PII claim was falsely made. PII claims are not made lightly in this place; in fact, we all need to take them very seriously because if we don't take them seriously we debase the work that we all do—not just the current government, not just the current Treasurer, but all of us. This has been made a mockery of by the Information Commissioner. You have been found, on this one, to be not wearing trunks when the tide has gone out, Labor.

What is the Treasurer going to do about this? We want him to, via his minister, make an explanation to the Senate as to exactly why he would make a false public interest immunity claim, debase the work of the Senate and debase us all.

Question agreed to.