Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw those remarks unequivocally. I praise those people who have come to me and said that all of the superannuation moneys are going into real estate and shares. We are just blowing up the balloon. If you keep blowing up the balloon it will burst. We have the most unaffordable housing prices in the world because the superannuation funds are being pumped into those areas. Under the great leadership in this place of people like Jack McEwen there was a 60-40 rule, and 60 per cent of your superannuation money was put into government securities where they were used to build things. It is not a concept that the Liberal Party understands; probably the Labor Party does not understand it either. They were used to build things such as railway lines to get our coal out, ports to get our coal out and transmission lines to take electricity into these areas and to open them up. They were government guaranteed.

We now have a superannuation system where there is no government guarantee on the retirees' funds and we know that they are all going into a hyper-volatile balloon about to explode in real estate and in the share market. I speak with authority because, unfortunately and sadly, I represent a lot of people who were prime losers in the collapse of Storm in Northern Australia. There were no union representatives on Storm, I can assure you. It seemed to go down pretty spectacularly. There have been a number of other organisations that have gone down spectacularly, and there were no union representatives there.

I ask sincerely that the people in this place listen to me when I say and when I communicate to you what those union members said to me. They said that all of that money is going into real estate and the stock market. It is not productive, it is not producing wealth in the long term. It is producing inflation. It is blowing up a balloon that is absolutely guaranteed to explode. When this place was much more successful than it is these days, we had people like Jack McEwen who ensured that 60 per cent of that money was protected. We had absolute protection for those people and government guarantees on the money. The money was used to go into productive resources instead of speculation. I venture to submit that all of that 23 thousand million of hard-earned savings in Australia is simply being pumped into speculation. None of it is going into production and into the facilities that we need for that production. Unfortunately and sadly, it is at great risk because it is going into inflationary areas.

Finally, I want to put on record my request to the minister that the financial consultants or planners be included in the list—which was my old business. I would very much like to see those people put on a list. Then, if you are an employee and you have a list of recommended superannuation funds, you also have a list of the local people that you know you can go along to and talk about where your money should be invested. So, whilst the minister has not agreed to put it in the bill, I would ask him to please consider this proposal further down the track. These people live in our local communities. They are well known, well liked and well trusted, and 99 per cent of them, from my experience, have done the right thing by the people that they do business with. If they did not, they could not survive in their suburbs or their small communities in which we know and like them. I would like to see those sorts of people in that recommendation as well as the superannuation recommendation from the fairness tribunal.

On the condemnation of trade union officials and making them out to be monsters: my friend, your great granddaddy went down a mine, and one in 31 of his mates never came back up again. The only reason that does not exist today is the work of those trade union officials. So just be a bit careful of the graves that you are spitting on.

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