Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) | Hansard source

While the Labor Party is supporting the Treasury Laws Amendment (Putting Members' Interests First) Bill 2019 because it has some good objectives, I very much sign up to the chorus of concern from Labor senators, who have expressed their deep concern about the failure of the government to engage with the Labor Party on addressing some of the key problems in this legislation, including, as my colleague Senator Ayres has pointed out and as Senator McAllister pointed out in her speech on the second reading, the issues to do with workers who are in high-risk industries.

We know the substance of this bill arose out of the Productivity Commission's concern about the number of Australians with multiple superannuation accounts, as well as the concerns about the fact that insurance premiums have been eating into the balances of workers in low-wage industries. I myself should have been more aware of the fact that I paid insurance out of two superannuation accounts—accounts that I was happy with. I paid insurance out of two accounts for some 10 years. I dread to think what the impact of that was on my superannuation balance; I probably don't want to look too hard at that. I have since remedied that situation. So I do understand that the government needs to take action to improve superannuation and these superannuation policies to ensure that they fit people's needs in terms of their point in life—if you're a young worker and you're not as likely to be facing periods of illness in your life or have a greater call for insurance. I understand that it is in Australians' interests for us to tweak these policies and the legislation framework around it. However, I do not believe that the government has done its best due diligence in that regard. We have Australians who work in very high-risk industries where this is likely to be the only insurance product that they can afford. We would have really liked to have seen the government pay more attention to those issues, but it's very clear that they've failed to do so.

We had the opportunity, in the form of a Senate inquiry, to take the time to address those issues, but I can see from the Senate's records that the committee that dealt with this legislation reported early and didn't hold public hearings on the matter to interrogate this written evidence.