Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

There's a sad fact about every Labor MP in this chamber. If you listen to them, you would think nothing good ever happened when any coalition government existed and that every cathartic good idea that happened in the Australian parliament since 1901 was on the Labor side of politics. There's one thing that no speaker, just with this motion, has mentioned with regard to superannuation. It's really quite bizarre. I often hear my coalition colleagues talk about some of the reforms of the Hawke and Keating era that were pretty good. They say: 'Look, Hawke and Keating did some good reforms during that period. Some of the privatisation was helpful for the economy.' There was a lowering of taxes. The member for Lyne remembers. Productivity actually grew under some of the Hawke and Keating years, and there were obviously some of these super reforms. But not one of the Labor MPs has spoken on this. They obviously don't care. No Labor MP cares about public servants' superannuation. And do you know what none of them have mentioned? The Future Fund. They can't mention the Future Fund—no Labor MP will let the words Future Fund come out of their partisan mouths, because it wasn't their idea. We can talk about the superannuation industry; we can talk about some of the things that Hawke and Keating did that were a good idea, but no-one mentions the Future Fund. It's pathetic! It's pathetic that not once has a Labor MP ever talked positively about a coalition policy.

Let me tell you where the Future Fund came from. It came from the Howard-Costello years and the John Anderson years. Do you know what the coalition government was doing then? Productivity was increasing. Productivity was going through the roof. Do you know what else we had? We had surpluses. We had government surpluses. And rather than just splurge the government surpluses, the Liberal-National parties said, 'We have a whole lot right here; don't mention it.' We won't mention the poor public servants who had unfunded superannuation liabilities. You won't hear them mention that. That won't come out of their mouths ever! The coalition government said, 'We need to fund public servants' superannuation liabilities.' From that time, the coalition government ceded between 50 to 60 billion bucks. They invested in what was then our first sovereign fund of that size to invest and get returns to fund public servants' superannuation. It was a really important reform, Labor MPs. What has it done since then? It's grown to about 250 to 260 billion bucks. The returns on it in a year can be around $30 billion, which is now nearly as much as what was initially ceded by the then coalition government that established this fund.

I encourage—I dare almost any Labor MP in your future careers in this chamber or in the House of Representatives to one day mention the Future Fund and one day mention the public servants whom you say you have a lot of respect for. I encourage the member for Bean, a Canberra MP who has a lot of respect for public servants, to mention the Future Fund as a coalition initiative. It was so important for their superannuation. It's lovely always to get up and talk about, and I do acknowledge the reforms of the Hawke-Keating years in establishing parts of our superannuation fund industry. I'm gracious enough to do that. Labor aren't. They never are, but I will acknowledge that. But I will also acknowledge the very important part that a coalition government had. One of the most important things—there were many achievements of coalition governments, but, certainly of the Howard-Costello and John Anderson years, I would say it is one of the most important things that was done, besides broadening the tax base with the GST and some of the other productivity reforms. As I said, the productivity of the country back then was enormous, but also it was the last time where we had a string of surpluses that were put to good use for the future of this country.

The Future Fund is a very important part of our super fund industry. It's a very important of the sovereign capability and the sovereign investments that we have in this country. I applaud the coalition government that brought that in. It was a great achievement.

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