Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to make a contribution to this debate too. I want to applaud Senator Walsh for the magnificent contribution she made. I'm the same as Senator Walsh: we're in budget week and here we go again. We see the opposition, potentially weeks out from an election being called—I have no idea what day that will be—and what do we get on the first day sitting back here in question time? We get the hearty old annuals from the opposition: union bashing and superannuation bashing. They wave the racism flag. The immigration flag pops up all the time. They are the same old hoary chestnuts that they go to when they are at the lowest of their low. You'd think that, leading into an election campaign, some of them on that side—excluding you, Mr Deputy President—on the front bench would actually be switched on. Anyway, I better be careful that I don't mislead the Senate and have people think that they are switched on.

But I really have to take—through you, Mr Deputy President—a challenge to Senator Bragg. Senator Bragg has been here for about three years, and it's a well-known fact that Senator Bragg hates industry superannuation. He makes some comments and he chucks in the word 'corruption' and all this sort of stuff around union super funds. There is a misconception out there in the public that all us senators in here, when we leave, are going to walk out with some pot-of-gold superannuation payout. I have to tell you that some of the good investors will, but we don't have the old superannuation fund that John Howard—we're not arguing; we're just proud and happy to be here representing our states. But I am still in my industry fund.

When I was a young truck driver, at the age of 26, at TNT, I was given the opportunity to have superannuation as part of my remuneration. At 26, I said, 'What am I going do with this $2.60 a week?' I had no idea. At 65, I'm so glad that we had industry super funds who had our best interests at heart. And let's not forget that—most people out there do know this—superannuation is not given to you because your employer loves you; superannuation is given to you because it's part of that magnificent opportunity of collective bargaining. We have, over the years—I know I've done this—traded off wage rises to get superannuation increases.

You listen to Senator Bragg and his one-eyed hatred of superannuation funds—I don't know what's wrong with you, Senator Bragg; I don't know what happened in your previous life. There are thousands and thousands of Australian workers who, thank goodness, have an industry fund. I want to get this out there very clearly: my industry fund, the TWUSUPER fund, which has now amalgamated with the Mining and Energy Union and is called Team Super, has a lazy $33 billion, and I am so glad. But these funds, if you listen to Senator Bragg, have the mafia and bikies running them. I take offence at that because my superannuation fund, like every other industry superannuation fund, has equal representation on its board. You listen to the nonsense that comes out over there—mafia, corruption and bikies. I can tell you now that there are no mafia members of the board at Team Super and there are certainly no bikies. There are union officials, national and state union secretaries, who have equal representation with the employer bodies.

At Team Super, I can tell you that there is TWU representation on one side and the ARTIO, the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation, on the other side. And, for those out there who think they're normal bedfellows, they have the greatest of respect for each other, but they are the employers' and employees' representatives. Serious businesspeople are looking after the investment for the members of those funds. I know, on the Mining and Energy Union side of it, it's the same deal: half union and half employers—that is, the NSW Minerals Council and the Queensland Resources Council.

So I take great umbrage when Senator Bragg gets on his high horse and is very happy to defend the likes of AMP and these other BT funds, all these other ones who gleefully take members' money and charge exorbitant charges compared to the industry super funds. Check out all the returns the bank ones get and compare them to the industry super funds. I tell you that, after 45 years of being in the super fund, I am so damn glad that I have an industry super fund. And let's not forget that great reason we have it: so we're not a burden on the taxpayer when we retire.