Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can hear those on the other side riling, because they have never supported workers getting fair and decent superannuation. It was the Labor Party that introduced occupational superannuation into this country to ensure that when average workers retire from a lifetime of work they have a fair and decent retirement income. Those on the other side of the House have always opposed it. They have always opposed our reforms to the superannuation system, because it riles them that average workers might have the same sorts of benefits and the same sorts of privileges that those opposite and those that they represent have taken for granted.

This legislation is another step in reforming and ensuring that ordinary workers have a fair, decent and safe superannuation system.

They ask what the urgency is. I will tell you what the urgency is: it is $3.4 billion in workers' superannuation money which is in lost accounts and is being eroded. It is being eroded week in and week out. I will tell you what is happening to that money. It is paying for administration fees for superannuation fund administrators. It is being eroded week in and week out. It is not going to benefit those for whom it was intended. It is paying for the big end of town so they can continue to clip the ticket in the administration of superannuation and it is not going to those for whom the superannuation was intended. I will tell you what the urgency is. The urgency is that this side of the House is not willing to allow that money to be continually eroded without having proper protections in place. That is what this package of bills is all about. There is over $3.4 billion in lost superannuation accounts and we can do a lot better than we are doing today to ensure that that money is preserved for the benefit of the true owners of that superannuation.

We estimate that, under the current rules, a 20-year-old with $1,000 in superannuation can unknowingly have that balance eroded to just $418 over a five-year period. That is $1,000 down to $418 over a five-year period because of administrative fees and charges through no fault of the employee, the owner of that account, and no fault of the employer. Because that is a lost account that is continually being eroded because of those fees, a 20-year-old with $1,000 in superannuation can have that go down to half its value over a five-year period. Fees and insurance charges typically exceed the average investment earnings even for accounts with $2,000. So a 30-year-old with a $2,000 account can unknowingly have their superannuation savings eroded to a little over $1,200 in a five-year period.

Those on the other side ask what the urgency is. That is the urgency. The urgency is in ensuring that that money is not eroded unknowingly and unwittingly to the benefit of somebody else.

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