REGULATIONS AND DETERMINATIONS

Senator McKIM (Tasmania—Australian Greens Whip) (15:52): I think we need to be very clear about what is going on here. What is going on is that a Labor government has introduced payday superannuation regulations—and I should be clear that the Greens absolutely support payday super because we believe that workers should be paid their super at the time they are paid their wages, and that is why we supported the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025.

But these regulations introduce, among other things, an exclusion for workers who are under 18 years old, working less than 30 hours a week, from being entitled to the superannuation guarantee. Let's be clear. People under 18 who are working pay taxes on their income.

People who are under 18 and are working contribute to our society and contribute to our economy. So why should they, just because they are under the age of 18, not receive superannuation payments? That is the question that the Labor Party needs to answer.

There's a reason that the Labor Party is colluding with those great friends of the Australian working people, the opposition—the coalition, who have consistently trampled workers' rights and actively suppressed wages for working people at every single opportunity they've had. The Labor Party is now joining with them to bring on a Greens disallowance motion that is moved in order to protect people who are under 18 and ensure that they get superannuation payments.

Now, why is Labor doing that? I'll tell you why Labor is doing it: because it doesn't want this issue to be a running sore for it. What have we got coming up soon?

That's right. The ALP National Conference. What are they facing?

A revolt from large parts of the union movement, who want to see superannuation paid to people under 18. It's fair to say the Greens, including me, have had our differences with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, the SDA, in the past, but I've got to say the SDA have been strong. They have been staunch, they have been steadfast and they have campaigned strongly and admirably for people under 18 to be paid superannuation regardless of how many hours in a week they work.

But we have a Labor Party running scared of the union movement and running scared of the SDA. They don't want the platform of this disallowance to be there to assist that campaign on behalf of working Australians who are under 18. It is instructive, I might say, that four senators who are extremely closely aligned with the SDA just voted against the interests of the SDA.

Senator Polley, Senator Farrell, Senator Ciccone and Senator O'Neill, shame on you all. You are in this place in large part because of the factional arrangements inside the Labor Party and because of the deals between unions and the Labor machine, and now you turn around and you vote against a campaign that your union, the SDA, is so admirably running. The Labor Party is running scared of the unions.

They are running scared of the Greens. They are running scared of the SDA. That is what is going on here.

Do you know who the big losers are going to be? People under 18 who work less than 30 hours a week, most of whom will not get super because they are not entitled to the superannuation guarantee in this country. That is devastating for young people.

It is devastating for fairness. It is devastating for equity. If you're old enough to go to work, you're old enough to get superannuation and qualify under the superannuation guarantee no matter how many hours a week you work.

That is the principle being put forward by the SDA and large chunks of the union movement and the Australian Greens, and that is the principle that is not supported by the Australian Labor Party, a political party that was founded on the basis of working people and advocating for the interests of working people. The light on the hill has been flickering for years, growing ever more dim since the start of neoliberalism in Australia under a Labor government in the 1980s.

I'll tell you what—it is so dim and flickering so much you can barely make it out when you look towards the top of the hill these days. The light on the hill was all about inspiring, protecting and enhancing the conditions for working Australians, and here is a moment in time for the Labor Party—an opportunity to demonstrate that they really are here for working people and that their rhetoric is not just hollow spin but actually has some substance.

What have they done? They have squibbed it. Not only have they squibbed it; they've squibbed it using the numbers of the antiworker parties in this place—the Liberal Party, the National Party, the One Nation party, the far right in this place.

Labor has no morals. Labor doesn't mind who it gets into bed with if it suits their political agenda and if it ensures that people under 18 are not going to get access to the superannuation guarantee. This is a shameful day.

I want to say this to everyone who has worked so hard. I acknowledge the tireless and inspiring efforts of my friend and colleague Senator Barbara Pocock on this issue. I acknowledge the SDA, who has run a magnificent campaign on this.

I acknowledge all the working people who've been in touch with so many of us and all the young people who just want a fair go in life and want to get superannuation payments so they can have some hope of a dignified retirement when they leave the workforce. I thank all those people and I say to them—and I'll close on this: thank you for your tireless advocacy.

Thank you for your staunch campaigning. Do not give up. This fight is not over.

The Greens will keep fighting. I have no doubt the SDA and large sections of the union movement will keep fighting, and civil society, which wants to see fairness and wants to see an end to this age discrimination, will keep fighting. I say to the Labor Party: you could have done it the easy way, but you know what?

You will end up doing it; it'll just be done the hard way.