Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is again to the Treasurer, and it also concerns injustice. Can the Treasurer confirm that Northern Trust, the Future Fund’s global custodian, managed the Enron staff superannuation fund? Can he confirm that Enron employees lost their superannuation because it was invested in Enron companies and that Northern Trust ultimately paid $US37.5 million to Enron employees to settle litigation against it alleging imprudent management of the superannuation fund?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I cannot confirm any of those matters, because the government does not manage the contracts. Nor does it manage the tenders, and nor does it do due diligence in relation to contracts of the Future Fund.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you mean you don’t know?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Melbourne has asked his question.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Future Fund is an independent statutory corporation which is managed by a board of guardians, and the government can no more intervene in its contracts than it could intervene in other statutory corporations. The guardians of the Future Fund have conducted a tender process; they believe that they have appointed the best value for money and the best service in relation to that. I understand what the member for Melbourne is doing: the member for Melbourne is trying to impugn the reputation of the guardians of the Future Fund. Well, good luck to him! But if his point is that any bank or financial institution which has been subject to litigation is unsuitable to conduct business then there will not be a bank in the world that could conduct business.

Certainly all of the Australian banks, and the National Australia Bank is one example, have been subject to litigation. It has had employees that have been subject to prosecution, but it has never lost its licence. As far as I am aware the National Trust Bank has never lost its licence; it has never been prohibited from conducting business. While it has a valid licence in relation to financial and banking procedures then obviously it is satisfying the regulatory requirements. While the board of guardians are managing the Future Fund and doing it in a transparent way they are obviously discharging the law.

If the Australian Labor Party says that the government should intervene, let it come to the dispatch box and say so. Let the Australian Labor Party come to the dispatch box, after saying yesterday that it would not interfere in relation to the Future Fund. Let it come to the dispatch box and say it would. If it is not prepared to do that, we can only conclude that this is petty politics which does not have any substantive policy behind it.