Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, finally this bill, the Family Law Amendment (Western Australia De Facto Superannuation Splitting and Bankruptcy) Bill 2020, comes before this parliament and, now, the Senate. It has taken way too long to get here. There has been unimaginable hurt created because the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments have taken way too long to act on something that should have been done and dusted in a day. I've stood in this place and seen legislation go through both houses in one day. This bill, which deals with discrimination against de facto couples in WA over years and years, has taken a very long time. Of course, the discrimination has been particularly against women. As we know, women have much lower superannuation balances, and de facto couples, when they've chosen to separate, have not been able to legally split their superannuation.

There's one person who's been central to holding this up—that is, the member for Pearce, Mr Christian Porter, who, ironically, was Attorney General in the WA state parliament and is now Attorney-General in this place. The bill has sat with him for a very long time, and he must have been aware of this issue. I've got my good friend Rachel Roberts to thank for telling me about this six years ago—six years ago!—when the Barnett government refused to do anything about the splitting of superannuation for de facto couples. I thank Rachel for being so steadfast in making sure we dealt with this issue. I also thank John Quigley, Labor's Attorney General in the state parliament, for urging the Attorney-General, Mr Christian Porter, who's absolutely central to this, to act so that finally the superannuation of those de facto couples in Western Australia who, unfortunately, split up will be treated in exactly the same way as that of all other de facto couples across this country. I have no idea why the Attorney-General chose to sit on this legislation for more than a year—to sit on a bill that's not controversial and that deals with discrimination in Western Australia against de facto couples who are separating—and I'm really pleased that the bill is finally before the Senate.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to add just a few comments in this debate on the Family Law Amendment (Western Australia De Facto Superannuation Splitting and Bankruptcy) Bill 2020. I'd very much like to support the comments that Senator Lines has just made. Anybody who pays attention to these issues in WA knows that this has been a very significant issue for a very long time and it's way beyond time that it was dealt with. The bill deals with an anomaly whereby women—and it's nearly always the women who suffer—were not being treated fairly and equally, so it is long past due and I'm really pleased that it has finally come to the top of the list. I'd also like to give a shout-out to the women who have been emailing to urge that this be done. Thank you for keeping it on the agenda. I think you'll all finally be very, very happy that this bill is about to pass.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Back in 2001, Western Australia was the first place in the country—because the rest of the nation was covered by the federal Family Law Act—to do law reform so that couples in de facto relationships, be they same-sex or opposite sex, could split their assets. In 2008, federal Labor also did superannuation splitting as part of its de facto law reform. But it has taken until 2020—because Western Australia is not part of the federal Family Law Act—for de facto couples now to be able to split their superannuation. I cannot begin to tell you of the injustices that have been done in that time because of the lack of capacity for people to split their assets.

A constituent wrote to me, pleading with the parliament to make sure that this gets passed. She had been paying most of the household bills, and her partner at the time had said to her: 'Look, this is great. Because you're paying the bills out of your salary, I can afford to pay more into my super so that we can have a happy, full and rich retirement.' So that is what they, as a couple, did. But what happens when they're before the Family Court? Even if they had wanted to split their assets amicably, when a lot of the assets were in superannuation the failure to act on law reform in this area meant that they could not. This has left hundreds, if not thousands, of people worse off than they otherwise would have been if they had been able to split their assets fairly, including superannuation.

Minister Porter said that this was urgent 12 months ago. I don't think the fact that it is now in this place some 12 months later reflects that urgency, but I will make these remarks short because I believe it is urgent that the bill passes today.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their contributions and commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.