Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I have already made some comments on the grandfathering amendment. Senator Siewert said, ‘It is so important that we get it right.’ I acknowledge that the Greens are making an attempt to ensure that there is not this notion of unfairness, of those who have and those who have not. I am not so sure a grandfathering clause should not be included in the final arrangements; I just do not think the final arrangements should be made today. We have had amendments circulated by Senator Xenophon. Have a look at the amendments, have a look at the interest in this and have a look at how many people are concerned about this. As Senator Siewert said, we want to make sure people are not afraid of us, and that is why I would again appeal to the Greens to simply vote this legislation down. Bring it back in seven weeks, when we have considered the Harmer report, and we can consider it then with all of the information behind us.

I have said before that we disagree with some of the fundamentals of the impact. I acknowledge that the grandfathering clause will allow the people who are currently in the scheme, who stand to lose that entitlement, to keep the entitlement, which will make them happy, but there are people who are about to join the scheme and have some expectation of that entitlement, and I guess that will make them unhappy. I acknowledge it is very hard to keep everybody happy. We owe people to consider this matter in light of the very best information available. There is no reason whatsoever that the government cannot simply withdraw this legislation and reintroduce it when we have had a full examination of the Harmer report, which is going to have another impact on self-funded retirees. It is for those reasons that we will not be supporting the grandfathering clause. I am quite sincere. We will sit down, in a bipartisan fashion, and examine this very carefully, but we can only do so with the backdrop of the information that this country has already invested in, which is the Harmer report.