Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

You're okay? You could follow along with the glossary.

Schedule 4, in relation to insurance, is also important. It makes amendments to the Insurance Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1991, the Life Insurance Act 1995 and the Insurance Act 1973. That's the year I was born, actually. You can do the maths—I've recently had a special birthday. I called it 'my next 40th', living in denial to some degree. Those acts are the enabling acts of the legislative instruments which regulate the insurance industry, and they're due to sunset on 1 October 2023. Of course, 'sunset' doesn't mean the lights go out. I was once giving a speech in here about Julian Assange—it was sort of incongruous—and the lights literally went out. It was like the parliament had been hacked the moment that I mention Julian Assange, who the United States government should drop the charges against.

Sunsetting doesn't mean sundown; it means the date at which a piece of legislation is automatically repealed unless action is taken to retain it. That is an important accountability mechanism for the parliament to impose when making laws. We make a lot of laws. We like to think they're all necessary—the Senate mucks up our work at times, of course—but it is important that laws are reviewed, that they're not static. The parliament deems it appropriate to put a self-executing end to certain pieces of legislation to force public servants and ministers to consciously review them and determine whether there's an ongoing need for them. Occasionally, embarrassingly for governments of all persuasions, a sunset date is missed, but not in this instance. It is important that legislative instruments are kept up to date.

The purpose of the relevant insurance act is to protect policyholders by regulating the types of persons that may carry on an insurance business—I'm sure the member for Lalor would agree that this is a very important measure—and prescribe standards to ensure the prudent management of the insurance industry. These amendments will help to ensure that the sunsetting insurance instruments that are still necessary are up to date and fit for purpose when they're remade.

It's not always important, but I think today it is important that we understand that the amendments to schedule 4 in the bill are primarily technical. They include updating certain provisions to reflect modern communication practices, allowing regulators to administratively prescribe the manner and form of certain notices to increase flexibility and align with modern drafting practices, and moving some provisions in the insurance instruments into the primary legislation. That gives them greater force. Unlike delegated legislation, which can be varied by ministers through the Governor in Council—sometimes subject to disallowance, sometimes not—measures in the primary legislation can only be changed by this parliament, with royal assent of course.

There have been some shocking scandals of late in the insurance industry. Putting aside the dreadfully boring technical nature of these measures—that is some of what we must do—prescribing standards to ensure the prudent management of the industry and that only fit and proper persons are able to carry on an insurance business is so important.

The Minister for Indigenous Affairs at the table over there would know far better than I the absolutely disgraceful, shameful scandal of the funeral insurance scam that, for so many years, was being sold in vulnerable Indigenous communities. Just ripping people off blind for insurance that was overpriced, that would never be delivered on and that they did not need.

My mum was always watchful of my grandpa as he aged because sometimes he would fall for a scam. We went over one day, and she really lost it at him because he'd fallen for a door-to-door carpet salesman scam. We discovered that he'd carpeted the entire house with new carpet: the kitchen and, worse, the laundry, the outhouse and the toilet. I don't think anyone should have the area around the toilet carpeted, but particularly not an ageing man living by himself. It brought up a range of issues. She was particularly watchful that he never bought funeral insurance because overwhelmingly, in my view, it's a complete scam. It never adds up; it's just not a good idea. Don't buy funeral insurance—but don't take advice from me on insurance though. Lucky we've got privilege here!

Finally, as I think the member for Hawke might have touched on, there's schedule 5. We didn't have a member for Hawke in the last parliament. The tradition is that after a former prime minister dies then at the following election there is a seat renamed after them or, in this case, created and named after them. Victoria gained a seat at the last election, and it was named after former prime minister Bob Hawke. My seat of Bruce is named after a former prime minister. I've never been able to solve the mystery as to why the seat was created in 1955, before former prime minister Bruce died, as an exception to the ordinary custom of waiting until the person has passed.

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