Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

This is not the way to run the House of Representatives. We have three bills that we have hardly been given notice on. There is one speaker on each bill because most of the members of this House, including the Labor members, have not seen the legislation. In our case, we did not see it until yesterday. We received a briefing on this legislation last night. We have not had any time at all to consult with the banking sector, with the superannuation sector, with financial planners, with consumers—no-one. The government is trying to ram it through this House. We got it referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services last night, but they have not even had time to meet to consider a reporting date on this legislation.

This chamber cannot be a rubber stamp. It was the Independents who said: 'Let the sun shine in. Let's have proper scrutiny.' And something goes through after being introduced like this! This is standard legislation. It is not of any great urgency to border security.

It is not of any great urgency in relation to the destiny of the nation. This is standard legislation dealing with billions of dollars of everyday Australians' money. It has a profound impact on them—and the parliament is meant to do it right now. I do not understand this.

Even when the government had a majority, it did not introduce and ram through legislation on this scale in this way. If there was legislation that had to go through, it was because there was a security issue associated with it—parliament would be recalled because of the security issue. This is about the unclaimed money of Australians. For example, until we had a briefing last night it was not clear that people can lose their first home saver accounts if there has not been action on those accounts for what appears to be three years. We have not got clarity from the superannuation industry about the impact of money going back into people's accounts if they go and claim it from the ATO, about what fees are charged or about what interest is charged. We do not know, because we did not hear about this until yesterday. We have not seen the details of the legislation. We do not know what the impact will be on people who travel for 12 months or for three years. We have no idea and yet we are being asked to change the law in this place. This is policy on the run. It is government on the run. Please do not make it parliament on the run. It is unacceptable.

Now we have these details, and this claiming is not the only thing it affects. Let me tell you some of the details that we are aware of in relation to this bill, the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Unclaimed Money and Other Measures) Bill 2012, which we have had less than 24 hours to consider. For example—

See this speech in context