REGULATIONS AND DETERMINATIONS
Senator BRAGG (New South Wales) (16:03): I note Senator Chandler has already indicated our position on this matter. In adding to her remarks, I make the point that this parliament is supposed to be for the people. We are not here for the SDA or the Rest Super fund or whatever else these people think we're here for.
At the end of the day, younger people are not thinking about superannuation. The idea that superannuation is the only way to have a safe or good retirement is such paternalistic thinking. Australians are not stupid, and Australians have a range of ways that they make their financial arrangements to prepare for their future and their family's future.
The idea that you've got to shoehorn every single dollar into superannuation to suit the fat cats at Cbus and HESTA, and all the other people that the Labor Party and the Greens want to help out most of the time, is lazy rust-bucket thinking. I caution the Labor government again on their preparedness to go along with ideas that come from the super lobby which haven't been thought through.
There's no other industry in Australia which opens the door and where all the money just falls in like the super funds. The healthy scepticism that many people on this side have is that the super lobby is so rich that it's been able to commission thousands of different reports where it can find ways where it should get more money that it can manage, in the case of 18-year-olds, for 42 years.
Of course they want more money, so they can charge high fees on it and send distributions back to their mates in the unions which own the funds. Of course they want that. I just think that we've got to be able to look at the vested interests here, and I think we've got to be very careful— Senator McKim: It's the Labor Party!
The PRESIDENT: All the speakers have been heard in silence, and that is exactly what will happen with Senator Bragg. Senator McKim interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Senator McKim, you are not in a debate with me. Senator BRAGG: I'll just make the point that I think the government ought to be very careful about adopting holus-bolus the ideas that come out of the super industry, because their formulation of policy will always be more money for them.
It's like Dracula and the blood bank. They never have enough money. They never have enough blood.
And the reality is that the Australian people are not stupid. There are many ways that people can prepare for their financial future. The parliament can go out of its way and abolish ways, as it did last week, for Australians to prepare for their futures.
And last week the parliament adopted an idea, which I think is going to come back to haunt it, from the super funds about banning self-managed funds from being able to invest in property. The extension of this policy is that now these funds are not able to invest in new properties off the shelf. They're not able— The PRESIDENT: Order!
Senator Bragg, please resume your seat. Senator Shoebridge, I ensured you were heard in silence. You will give the same respect to Senator Bragg, or I invite you to leave the chamber.
Senator BRAGG: I make the point that, if a self-managed super fund wants to invest in an off-the-plan development, then it is adding to housing stock. By definition, the trustees are not able to live in that dwelling. It seems very strange to me that a government that says it wants to increase housing supply has adopted a policy which was written by the super funds to stop SMSFs from investing in property because they're worried about their market share.
I find very grating the amount of time this Senate spends working through the laundry list of issues from the super lobby. Everything is about how they can get more money, akin to Dracula and the blood bank, whether it is trying to give 16-year-olds more superannuation or trying to ban self-managed funds from doing things to ensure the market position of the major funds, which obviously are worried about haemorrhaging members to SMSFs.
The idea that people are too stupid to manage their own financial affairs is, frankly, offensive. People are not stupid. People are better informed than they ever have been.
People are able to go deep on a number of technical issues that may not have been possible in years gone by because of the different technologies people now have in the palm of their hand. There's the idea that this parliament will work through the laundry list of issues from the big super funds, who are desperate to have more money. Their solution to every problem is more money for them to manage and charge high fees on, so they can send distributions back to their mates.
I make the point that the government should be very careful about adopting more and more policies every week that have been written by vested interests. They should be smarter than that and be able to see it for what it is.