Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to be able to make a brief contribution here on this important matter. This all predates this parliament. It goes back to the last parliament, when the former government sought to enact laws that would make the super funds work in the interests of their workers and members, rather than work for their vested interests that own the trusts. That has been necessary because the funds collect over $30 billion a year in fees. They are guaranteed to get this money. They open the door, the money falls in and they take the high fees.

One of the things that they have done, over the long term, has been to pilfer and find other ways of transferring moneys into their favourite related parties. If you're a bank fund, you find ways to send money to the bank. If you're an industry fund, you find ways to send money off to your favourite employer group or union. The reason we enacted a regulation after we passed the enabling law, which was opposed by the Labor Party—they couldn't bring themselves to vote for a structural reform that would have made the funds work for the workers. The regulation required all of these funds to disclose all of their related party payments.

That was perfectly reasonable. No consumer group was unhappy. No third party could be found that was unhappy with that level of transparency. But the first order of business for the new minister in the government for vested interests, Mr Stephen Jones, was to remove that transparency by making a regulation, late on a Friday afternoon, back in September. This followed the exposure draft of an identical regulation—