Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting the suspension or the motion. I do find it rather amusing that Senator Cash gives such a passionate statement about protecting people's super when those opposite oppose super. They oppose superannuation every time. They've voted against superannuation from its inception to now, when they continue to look at ways to undermine it because they cannot stand working people having access to capital to fund their retirement. That's ultimately what this is about. You cannot bear it. You can't bear the size of the superannuation industry. You can't bear that industry funds actually have resources in this country to invest on behalf of their members.

Nobody thinks you're serious, Senator Cash—that you have some concern about people's superannuation. It's not about that at all. All of this term, you have sought to undermine every effort we have taken to provide cost-of-living support and help to Australian families. You walk in here, at the end of a sitting fortnight, to pull a stunt that you argue is trying to protect people's superannuation. It is Labor that built superannuation, it is Labor that has ensured that it works in the interests of working people and it is only Labor that will continue to do that. I accept that you, in seeking to discharge this, do not agree with the position the government has put in the legislation. I accept that you don't support a very modest change that allows high-balance superannuation—