Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Temporary Residents’ Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 and the Superannuation (Departing Australia Superannuation Payments Tax) Amendment Bill 2008. This legislation will have an impact on my local electorate, whether on backpackers who work in the horticultural industry in the Lockyer Valley, doctors and nurses who work in the health system in Ipswich or meatworkers who work at the Dinmore meatworks, currently run by Swift Australia. This legislation will require that superannuation funds of departed temporary residents who do not take their superannuation with them upon departing Australia be paid to the Australian government via the Australian Taxation Office. Of course, that does not mean that we are taking the money by theft; if they wish to claim it back they can do so.

This is a good amendment. It will ensure the integrity of our superannuation industry. It is a good amendment insofar as it allows better administration of our superannuation industry. It will mean that the superannuation money of a person who departs this country, their temporary visa having ceased to be in effect for more than six months, can come into the coffers of the Australian Taxation Office. It will ensure that those many, many superannuation funds that are currently in existence without anyone ever making use of them or even knowing about them will be able to be consolidated and used for the benefit of the taxpayers of Australia.

To cover the taxation concessions and the costs, we are raising withholding tax by five percentage points to 35 per cent in most cases. This measure has the bipartisan support of the opposition and we welcome that. It is a good measure which is consistent with what Labor governments have done in the past.

My parents and my grandparents before them have not had the benefit of superannuation. I daresay there are many people in this House whose parents are in similar circumstances. It is the case today that Australian citizens expect that superannuation will be paid as an incidence of employment, that both those who have permanent residency and those who have temporary residency will gain the benefit of superannuation. It is quite sad that for quite some time there was significant opposition to the introduction of superannuation into this country. In the past, some decades ago, employer groups opposed superannuation. I acknowledge that today employers and employees now accept, like they accepted Medicare, that superannuation is an integral aspect of the Australian way of life.

I want to pay tribute to the Hawke and Keating governments, which did so much for this country. It was the Hawke and Keating governments which floated the dollar, internationalised our economy, reduced the tariff barriers, ensured that consumers in this country paid fair amounts for consumer goods and ensured that our country became internationally competitive. It was the Hawke and Keating governments which opened up the banking system in a way that has enabled it today to cope with the international crises that are currently confronting so many countries, Western and other, around the world. It is the greatest achievement of the Hawke and Keating governments that the superannuation industry in this country is so prosperous, with in excess of $1 trillion being accumulated in the superannuation industry.

There are so many people these days who have a stake in the Australian economy—and its wealth and prosperity—and in our economic future because they have superannuation. Many people have shares these days, and many have shares through superannuation funds. We have hundreds of thousands of self-managed funds in this country and we have hundreds of thousands of people in this country—indeed, millions of people in this country—who have superannuation as employees. They therefore have a stake in our economic development.

Superannuation equals security. Historically, retirement for most people on low and middle incomes meant periods of uncertainty, worry and anxiety. That was common where I grew up in Ipswich, with railway workers, coalminers, meatworkers, butter factory workers and many people I know who, through injury, had early retirement or reached certain ages and therefore had to retire and faced a great deal of worry, anxiety and concern about what would happen in the future for themselves, their partners and their families. Many of those people were in circumstances where they had dependants and had to deal with putting their children through school and university, still without the kind of financial support in terms of their income which would allow them to achieve what they wanted to achieve for themselves and their families.

I know there are many people, me included, who have found in the last 12 months that the level of their superannuation is not what they would have hoped. But it is true that historically superannuation funds have done well in this country. The superannuation industry has allowed us to invest in all kinds of industry in this country, in manufacturing, agriculture and biotechnology. Compared with overseas countries, our country is stronger economically, we are wealthier and we are a more fair and just society, by reason of superannuation.

It is the case that many people these days retire on a combination of superannuation and a pension. Many people who have contacted my electorate office in Blair in Queensland have expressed to me that they will be increasingly dependent on a pension. It is in that context that the Economic Security Strategy of the Rudd Labor government is so welcome to the people in my electorate. In fact, the $10.4 billion which will be afforded in this package will benefit 43,701 households in my electorate, with many payments to carers and pensioners, single and partnered. This is crucial in terms of providing these people with a decent living and allowing them to be able to feed and clothe themselves and afford adequate housing and proper health care. The superannuation industry is vital in that regard, as is the Economic Security Strategy of the Rudd Labor government.

Superannuation is a tremendous thing for this country. It has been an instrument of wealth creation and wealth distribution and it gives the kinds of people that I represent the kinds of lifestyles they deserve. It gives them a decent living and proper access to the kinds of things that wealthy people in this country take for granted. It is a great Labor achievement. I accept and acknowledge that during the Howard years the opposition also supported the superannuation industry, and I welcome their continued support of it and the type of legislation that is before the House today. If we get bipartisan support in relation to the superannuation industry and the economic development of this country then the people of this country will have faith and confidence in us.

Since my election in November last year, I have seen and experienced many things which I did not think I was going to, but I have learnt that there are people of goodwill, respect, commitment and hard work who think the best of this country and want the best for it. Superannuation is an area which affords the people in my electorate the kind of life that they need but which is earned, not given to them gratis. People get superannuation through their employment. Australians—certainly the people in my electorate—accept that superannuation is something which they receive as part of the decency of the Australian way of life. I commend all the people in this House who have voted for superannuation in the past.

I personally thank the Hawke and Keating governments who allowed so many of the people that I know in my electorate to have a life of respect and adequacy in their retirement as a result of the superannuation industry and the reforms of those governments. When I leave this place and look back, whether it is at the next election or in many years to come, I will say this: I would not have been in this place but for Labor governments; this country would not be what it is today without Labor governments; and the superannuation industry would not have been created without Labor governments. Accordingly, I commend these bills to the House.

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