Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It's been a genuinely interesting experience to listen to the contributions of senators this evening on this important legislation, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 and related bill. I would particularly like to associate my remarks this evening with the remarks of Senators McKim and Pocock and put on the record my support for the amendment moved by my colleague Senator Barbara Pocock of South Australia in relation to the payment of superannuation to those below the age of 18.

As the Greens spokesperson for youth affairs, I've heard from many young people across my home state of Western Australia and across the country about the real challenges and struggles of young people right now, confronting the reality of the cost-of-living crisis. Last week I shared with the chamber an individual's story shared with me as part of the Raise Our Voice Australia campaign, where they outlined very clearly the challenges of being a young person trying to make ends meet when age based wage discrimination in Australia is a reality. And I would take that argument further. It is a shame upon us that, right now, young people in Australia who are below the age of 18 are often not paid their super. They have to jump through these additional hoops to be able to get the super that should rightly be theirs. It's. quite frankly, ridiculous that in Australia in 2025 a person who is below the age of 18 needs to work-30 plus hours for one employer to be able to qualify for the provision of superannuation. Anybody who has taken a moment to look at the dynamics of work among that particular age cohort knows that if you are below the age of 18, you are much more likely to work for multiple employers in part-time positions as you seek to make ends meet and to find yourself fully employed. So I very much support Senator Pocock's amendment and would commend it to the Senate.

I want to mention two other groups here in relation to superannuation and this bill—firstly, disabled people in Australia. We know that disabled people in Australia, as a community, experience far higher levels of unemployment and far higher levels of underemployment than the rest of the Australian community. Because of those factors, we have far less in our retirement savings than the rest of the Australian community. We also continue to live in a reality where it is legal in 2025 in Australia, under Australian law, to pay a disabled person less than the minimum wage purely because they are disabled. We have wage based discrimination as the law of the land in Australia. That means that many, many workers work in so-called sheltered workshops or Australian disability enterprises for dollars on the hour, and that affects the amount of money that they have in their superannuation. A friend of mine who was in an ADE for six years, I believe, managed to accrue some $300 over that time in paid superannuation. So, when we look at reforming the super system, we need to take account of the fact that many disabled people are starting from far, far behind the rest of the community.

Finally, I would draw the Senate's attention to some superb reporting that has been done by the ABC and by the Guardian over the course of the last few weeks. They've drawn the community's attention to a rather horrifying fact, and that is that, between 2018-19 and the financial year 2024-25, there has been a 1,200 per cent increase in the amount of money withdrawn by Australians from their superannuation for the purpose of paying for health care. Overwhelmingly, the reason that they are withdrawing that money is to pay for dental care. In the last year alone, Australians withdrew some $817 million from their superannuation in order to pay for dental care. In 2018-19, that figure was $66.4 million. That represents a colossal loss of retirement security which Australians otherwise would have enjoyed, but they had to take it out to pay for the dentist.

Some might be thinking, as you listen to this debate tonight, that potentially people withdrew this money for non-essential care. Maybe you're thinking that people have somehow found a way to utilise the hardship loopholes within the superannuation system to withdraw super for cosmetic reasons. But, again, the good journalists that are on the case, this time last week on 7.30, showed us really clearly what the reality is—what is actually going on. They brought us stories of Australians who are survivors of cancer—head and neck cancer. They've taken it on and they've beaten it with the help of their families and their healthcare professionals. When they confront and look down the barrel of the journey back to what life was before—the restorative work that is so necessary to live well again post head, neck or oral cancer—they discover, and their treatment team discovers, that there is this completely unjustifiable gap in our cancer treatment system. The gap is that, if you are seeking restorative care—prosthetics, surgeries—to regain function and if it's for the mouth or some parts of the face, then it's not covered under Medicare. So what do people do? They are having to turn to the remortgaging of their homes and, yes, the withdrawal of tens of thousands of dollars from their superannuation. One story in the most recent reporting quoted an individual who had to withdraw $50,000 to afford the restorative dental care post their victory over cancer.

Situations like this are why Jonathan Clark, who is the head of neck and head cancer at the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse hospital, was driven to give a quote to the ABC about this situation. He was asked what he thought about people being confronted with these unthinkable choices and unthinkable decisions—whether to live your life in pain and in physical shame or to go to so deeply into debt. His response was that it made him feel 'ashamed' to work in a health system that thinks that's an acceptable choice for people to have to make. I share that sense of shame with Chris.

We as a legislature should never have let our community arrive at 2025 with gaps like that still remaining in the system. It's just not okay. I'm really pleased that, last week, the government supported the second reading amendment that I moved in relation to the commissioning of a study into what it would mean to bring head and neck cancer restorative treatments fully into Medicare. That's a great first start.

We have to take the passion, the historical knowledge and the care and commitment that so many have displayed in the course of this debate in relation to superannuation, a scheme which is close to the hearts of many people in here and, I would say, every single one of our electors—we have to take that energy and direct it towards a clear-eyed assessment of what is currently happening in our community, which is a mass transfer of retirement savings from super accounts, where those savings were intended to stay and to accrue interest so that people could have a nest egg. That money is flowing out and into this gaping hole in our public healthcare system. It's a gaping hole that will only be filled when we finally take the step of bringing dental care fully into Medicare.

That's what we must do to solve this problem. I know it can't happen overnight. I know it is a significant reform. But let's start somewhere. Let's start by bringing head and neck cancer rehabilitative treatment into Medicare so that nobody ever again has to raid their super to be able to afford a prosthetic that allows them to smile, or a surgery or treatment that gives their teeth enamel and allows their mouth to function, because the radiation that saved their life also fried their salivary glands. Let's end that for people. While we're at it, let's introduce a seniors dental benefit scheme for those older Australians who are doing it tough, so that they can get some basic dental care. Let's take those first three steps towards that world where dental care is covered by Medicare. Among the many benefits that that will bring will be that so much more will remain in people's superannuation accounts, where it was intended to be in the first place. Let's do that. Let's provide full coverage and provision of superannuation for those under the age of 18, as suggested by my colleague from South Australia, and let us make sure that all disabled people in Australia are paid a full wage, regardless of their disability. I commend this legislation to the Senate.