Senate debates

Thursday, 15 June 2017

Questions without Notice

Leader of the Opposition

2:02 pm

Photo of James PatersonJames Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment, Senator Cash. I am interested to follow up issues we were discussing in question time yesterday. Can the minister further update the Senate about recent reports concerning donations to registered organisations which appear to show a conflict of interest.

Photo of Michaelia CashMichaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank Senator Paterson for his question. Yesterday in question time, I raised questions about the clear conflict of interest that the current Leader of the Opposition, Mr Shorten, had when the superannuation fund for which he was a director—AustralianSuper—paid tens of thousands of dollars to the union he controlled, the AWU, coincidentally in the year that Mr Shorten was running for election to the federal parliament.

Today we see further reports and further questions raised about these dealings. At the eleventh hour, and 10 years after the fact, the AWU has now expressed an intention to amend the description of this payment. However, no matter how it is described, the opposition leader has failed to explain just how he managed what are clear conflicts of interest in this situation.

I know yesterday that Mr Shorten told the House, 'No rules broken. No conflict existed.' A conflict of interest clearly exists when a person wears three hats, when he has duties to both the hardworking Australians whose retirement savings were held by AustralianSuper and to the union members at the AWU and, at the same time, money is changing hands. What Mr Shorten has failed to explain is exactly how he dealt with this conflict. Did he remove himself from the deliberations by AustralianSuper about such payments? As head of the AWU, did he disclose his interest on receiving it? Did he request the payment personally himself or did someone do it on his behalf? Mr Shorten needs to explain.

Photo of Stephen ParryStephen Parry (President) Share this | | Hansard source

Senator Paterson on a supplementary question.

2:04 pm

Photo of James PatersonJames Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Can the minister inform the Senate why it is important that we have greater transparency in how money flows into and out of registered organisations?

Photo of Michaelia CashMichaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | | Hansard source

AustralianSuper holds the retirement savings of hardworking Australians on trust. Its directors have a special duty to put the interests of working Australians above all other interests. Australians need to have confidence that their superannuation savings are being held for their retirement, not paid to unions for partisan purposes.

As I mentioned yesterday, over $53 million has been paid by industry superannuation funds to unions over the past 10 years. Over the same period nearly $65 million has been paid by unions to the Australian Labor Party. So payments from industry superannuation funds account for an amount equivalent to 82 per cent of the funds paid by unions to the Labor Party. We need to ensure Australians have faith in their super funds.

Photo of Stephen ParryStephen Parry (President) Share this | | Hansard source

Senator Paterson, a final supplementary question?

2:05 pm

Photo of James PatersonJames Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Can the minister inform the Senate how the government is proposing to address the problem of a lack of transparency?

Photo of Michaelia CashMichaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | | Hansard source

People's life savings should not be bankrolling political movements. This government's registered organisations legislation is a significant step in ensuring that registered organisations are transparent in the same way as companies are transparent. We also have critical legislation in the parliament to prevent corrupting and secret payments between registered organisations and employers and provide full disclosure of legitimate payments that are made.

The AWU's decade-long delay in properly disclosing and now, at the eleventh hour, trying to reclassify a payment from AustralianSuper to Mr Shorten's union, and Mr Shorten's refusal to acknowledge the clear conflict of interest that arises in this context, quite frankly, only raises further questions. Mr Shorten needs to explain how he dealt with these clear conflicts.