Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the Public Sector Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill 2018. I make clear from the outset that Labor will support this bill. The bill makes a number of mostly technical changes to superannuation arrangements for public servants, judges and Commonwealth parliamentarians. Perhaps most significantly, the bill ensures that the minimum superannuation guarantee requirements will be met for parliamentarians in all circumstances in the future.

I'll go to the issues surrounding the super guarantee in a moment, but first I will touch briefly on other aspects of the bill. The bill allows members of the Judges' Pensions Scheme to now be able to meet their division 293 tax liability requirements through a lump sum payment. Some members currently can't meet their liability through the scheme. This change rectifies that and is consistent with other Commonwealth schemes.

The bill provides certainty for the children of members of several Commonwealth superannuation schemes, specifically around what happens to members' superannuation balances should they die. These schemes will be standardised and modernised when it comes to reversionary superannuation benefits paid to children of deceased members. The amendment increases the minimum-age test for children to be in full-time education from 16 to age 18, and it removes the requirement for an eligible child to not be employed. These changes reflect the fact that the majority of children do not leave formal education until they're 18 years of age and that part-time and casual employment amongst young people is common.

The bill seeks to reduce the size of the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation Board from 11 to nine directors and modernises the governance arrangements. The bill also gives the Parliamentary Retiring Allowances Trust the flexibility to pass a resolution without a meeting and allows other actuaries, rather than only the Australian Government Actuary, to provide advice to theParliamentary Contributory Superannuation Scheme. Again, this is consistent with other Commonwealth schemes.

As I mentioned, this bill also ensures that, under any scenario, any payments under the Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Act 1948 will meet the minimum superannuation guarantee requirements. The Australian Government Actuary found there were some limited circumstances where this could still be an issue—all hypothetical and unlikely scenarios. Nonetheless, we support this measure to ensure that SG contribution requirements are met.

Unfortunately, for many Australian workers, not being paid the superannuation guarantee that they're entitled to isn't a hypothetical. Industry Super Australia estimates that 2.4 million workers are losing $5.6 billion in payments each year. For those workers, that's the equivalent of losing $2,000 a year that should be going into their retirement savings. Super is part of a worker's pay and conditions. Every worker deserves to receive the superannuation that they're entitled to. Yet we have a Prime Minister and a government who always side against them when it comes to super.

The Liberals recently proposed a 12-month amnesty for employers who haven't made compulsory superannuation payments to their staff since 1992. That means that the dodgy bosses who haven't paid their staff any superannuation for a quarter of a century won't be penalised at all if they pay it back during the amnesty period. What's even worse is that, under the Liberals' plan, the superannuation guarantee charge would be tax deductible for employers, so dodgy bosses would get a tax break for doing the wrong thing.

As I said, these amendments are mostly technical and they won't affect the vast majority of Australians. We will support this bill, especially the changes that ensure that compulsory super guarantee payments are always made.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank those opposite for their contribution to this debate and commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.