ADJOURNMENT

Ms ALDRED (Monash—Opposition Whip) (13:10): I'd like to speak on a couple of things, and I want to start with Phillip Island, which I very proudly represent as part of my electorate of Monash. Phillip Island is of course home to the Phillip Island penguin colony, and it has been in the news recently in relation to the outbreak of the H5 bird flu virus. I spoke to Catherine Basterfield, the CEO of Phillip Island Nature Parks yesterday.

Phillip Island Nature Parks are leading a world-first vaccination program. They're aiming to have 5,000 of the 40,000 penguins vaccinated to make sure that this iconic species is protected. I also want to place on record my appreciation to Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Julie Collins, for giving her time and attention in such a bipartisan way.

I met with her this morning and attended a number of briefings last week. I'll continue to work with the minister, with Phillip Island Nature Parks and with Bass Coast Shire Council. It was very good to meet last week with Mayor Brett Tessari, and Councillor Ronnie Bauer, who represents in his ward Phillip Island, and I know he's just so passionate about that community.

It is something we all deeply care about, and I'm most concerned about doing everything possible to protect the Phillip Island penguins. I also discussed with the minister the Monash electorate's poultry sector and the importance of continuing to do everything possible and available to us to protect the poultry sector in my electorate. I appreciate the minister's care and attention to these matters as well.

When I presented my maiden speech to the parliament last year, one of the things I called for was a national framework to address coastal inundation. This is a very big issue for a number of areas of my electorate in South Gippsland Shire and also in Bass Coast, most particularly Inverloch and part of Phillip Island. It's an environmental issue, it's an economic issue, and I've spoken to a number of residents on Phillip Island staring down the barrel of potentially losing their homes.

We've got an incredible Surf Life Saving Club at Inverloch, which is right at the coalface of coastal inundation. One of the things I want to call for today is the need for a parliamentary inquiry into coastal inundation. It's something I care deeply about, and I recently spoke with Bass Coast Shire Council about this and the fact that at the moment we have an ad hoc, patchwork quilt approach to addressing coastal inundation.

It's something that affects regional communities like mine, and also city areas across Australia. It would be good to have a nationally coordinated approach addressing the economic insurance and environmental challenges of this important issue. I will continue to progress on this matter because I think it's important to my community. it's important to Australia and it's important to the environment, and I look forward to pursuing my call for a parliamentary inquiry on this.

Yesterday, the minister for superannuation presented a keynote speech to the National Press Club. I have a very high regard for the minister, Daniel Mulino, but I want to make a couple of points that I believe should have been addressed yesterday and weren't. One of those relates to service standards in the superannuation sector, particularly the issue of death benefit pay-outs.

We've had AustralianSuper being litigated against by ASIC because of 7,000 outstanding claims. Super Consumers Australia recently conducted a landmark report which found that Australian Super don't bother to answer their phone in 90 per cent of the cases that they had in their report. We had the ASIC claims-handling report recently, which found that 78 per cent of cases where there are outstanding death benefit payments due are uncomplicated and within the control of the trustees.

This is not good enough. I also want to point out that in 2024 there was a landmark Senate inquiry on the issue of domestic violence perpetrators still being able to access the superannuation of their victims where those victims have passed away. In a number of cases that I have read, there's outstanding evidence to suggest that this really shouldn't be the case.

I want to see action on superannuation service standards and death benefit pay-outs, and I want to see the government get on with addressing this in a real manner.