Craig Kelly (Hughes, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I respect your ruling. I was making the point of the urgency of this bill, because we are facing a situation in this nation where many workers will be changing jobs because of policies that are happening in this nation. And, because they are changing jobs, they are at risk of having their superannuation policy and, most importantly, their life insurance policy stapled. So the reason and the urgency for this particular bill that I have introduced today is because of that very situation, and I think it is important that I detail that as an explanation in part of the introduction to this bill.

We have an obligation to the workers of this nation. We have an obligation to ensure that they can actually go and do their job. But we are facing a situation where many hundreds of thousands of workers are forced out of their job, and they'll be forced into other industries. And, when that happens, under the current legislation, they will have their life insurance policies tied to their superannuation policies stapled. There is a very real risk, with what this House has done and what the other place has done, that there will be young workers who will suffer a catastrophic injury when they change jobs and find that the life insurance policy under their superannuation is inadequate. That has to change. I plead with the other members of this House to see the danger of this policy and what it has done and to see the risks that it poses to young Australians.

There may very well be an argument to staple your investments, but there is no argument to staple your life insurance policy, and that is the mistake that this House has made. This bill seeks to remedy that. It puts in a threshold so that, for workers transferring into certain industries—those four most important industries of construction, mining, agriculture and transport—their life insurance policy is not stapled. It is economically sensible, it is socially responsible and it should be supported by everyone in this House and, I hope, the other house.

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