Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Friday afternoon, the Assistant Treasurer, Stephen Jones, made a regulation which will exempt super funds from disclosing the payments they make to unions. I've lodged a freedom-of-information request to understand how this regulation was made and upon what basis it was made. Now, $35 million will be paid from super funds to unions by 2030, which is a huge amount of money. This is how money is washed from the super funds into the Labor Party. Donations are generally not made directly to the Labor Party; they're made through these unions. Thirty-five million bucks by 2030 is a lot of money. They'd run a lot of campaigns on that basis. We know that Treasury did not recommend these changes. The FOI request should shed some light on why these regs were made, who gave advice on this issue and why on earth these payments are going to be aggregated and hidden from members.

Of course, the old regulations, which were made by the former government, hadn't even been given a chance to see the light of day. These disclosures were cancelled in order to have this regulation aggregate the dollars that are being paid out of the super funds to the unions. Ultimately, now, the Senate will need to make a judgement about whether it will stand for transparency and integrity on the matter of compulsory super. I would have thought that, in a compulsory system established by this place, people should be able to see where their money is going. If it is being paid to a union or to any other organisation, people should be able to see that. It's all well and good for Mr Jones to say that he has required funds to disclose political donations, but the real money here is washed through the unions. I'm sure the FOI will shed great light on how in fact this policy was designed, which is a great shame to this parliament.