MILLAR:
Australians have being urged to check their super balances with almost $14 billion still unclaimed. Data from the Australian Tax Office suggests a large slice of that belongs to people in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Minister Jane Hume joins us from Canberra. Good morning. Welcome to News Breakfast.
HUME:
Good to be with you, Lisa.
MILLAR:
So where is all this money ended up?
HUME:
Well, a couple of years ago we changed the legislation so that if you had lost or unclaimed super that had been sitting with the super fund you didn't even know about, it would be rolled into the ATO and the ATO would use technology to data-match those funds to your accounts. So we suggest people go on to the myGov website and check their super balances. Just a couple of clicks away. It takes about the same amount of time to have a cup of coffee in the morning.
MILLAR:
And $14 billion is not to be sneezed at. We got a couple of other superannuation issues ticking around. First of all, on Tuesday you were backing what's been described as a controversial plan to allow domestic violence victims who are fleeing their abusers to access up to $10,000 out of their super. The Prime Minister has now cast doubts on that saying it will be reviewed. Are you prepared to say that it's going to be dumped?
HUME:
Well, this is a policy that's been around for a number of years. It was actually proposed by HESTA, the super fund that has around 80% of its members are female. That was proposed in about 2017 and backed by the industry at the time. It was announced in the first inaugural Women's Economic Security Statement in 2018. But it's actually much harder to do than anticipated. While it would be a terrific opportunity to be able to help women that are fleeing a violent relationship by allowing them to access a small amount of their savings and there's - you know, we allow people to access their super savings on compassionate grounds all the time, making sure that the safeguards are there to make sure the system can't be abused is not an easy task.
MILLAR:
It's not just that it's difficult, you got a lot of extra feedback from a whole lot of parties who said this is not the right way to go so back to my question - are you going to dump it?
HUME:
Well, we have already been consulting with stakeholders and people particular at the front-line of this industry to make sure that those safeguards are in place and if they can't be, well it won't proceed.
MILLAR:
The superannuation increase, is it going to go ahead or is it going to be delayed?
HUME:
It's already been legislated. The superannuation guarantee will increase by 0.5 per cent in the middle of this year, but, you know, don't for a second think that doesn't come with a trade-off. Money doesn't grow on trees and there is a good chance that if there is an additional cost to employers when they pay that extra 0.5 per cent that it will come at the expense of potentially wage rises in the future. Everything this government is doing is about increasing the number of jobs and increasing wages. So this - while it's already been legislated has been legislated for some time, it comes at a cost.
MILLAR:
Yeah, that's a whole other discussion about the rate of wage growth in Australia, but certainly you're saying from July 1, that that timetable is not going to be delayed, that the superannuation guarantee increase will go ahead because you still had a lot of backbenchers in your own party who have been actively campaigning to have it delayed.
HUME:
Well, I don't think that this could come at a worst time, but that said, it's been in place for a long time and it is already legislated. The Prime Minister has said that he will assess the situation closer to the time based on the best information available to him at the time, the best economic information available to him at the time. And I think that the Government demonstrated last year that it was able to act on information as it came to us because it's - you know, it's pretty moving feast to the economy at the moment.
MILLAR:
You were one of the women who were at the march on Monday with - and so many discussions about it this week and yet, you know, in the last 24 hours, we saw such a revealing photo of Nicolle Flint surrounded by men in Parliament. We heard again of a resignation of a staff member last night with concerns about messaging. Does it get to the point this is not just a problem, I guess, in Federal Parliament, we're looking at reviews in New South Wales as well, it's right across-the-board, is it time to revisit quotas for the Liberal Party?
HUME:
Oh, I'm not sure whether that is, you know, the solution to this problem. I think that this is a cultural problem, not just in Parliament, it's a cultural problem...
MILLAR:
But the more women you have there surely the better the situation is going to be and yet - and the Liberal Party is not managed to increase the number of women there?
HUME:
Well, we do know that the Labor Party has quotas for women and yet it has had a Facebook page full of, you know, stories of poor behaviour from male colleagues. So, you know, I don't know whether the two are - are entirely related. That said, of course we want more women in Parliament, of course we want more women's voices in this building. This is where decisions get made and where things get done and things get changed. That's why I think that, you know, you can actually feel the shift in the conversation this week. The story that Nicolle Flint put forward was a really sad one because she is such a strong woman and such a good Parliamentarian.
MILLAR:
Did she get enough support from her side of the Parliament?
HUME:
I think she got support from her side of Parliament. Her problem was with the opposition and potentially, you know, the grave and sombre speeches that they had about protecting women and yet where were they when it was their people that were persecuting.
MILLAR:
They denied it.
HUME:
I'm not sure who else would be after Nicolle Flint other than the opposition who were trying to unseat her.
MILLAR:
Just finally the vaccine rollout has hit quite a few hurdles over the last 24 hours. Has it been botched?
HUME:
Well the vaccine rollout will continue around 1,000 GP clinics will come online next week and they'll go up to about 4,000 by the end of April as the vaccine rollout ramps up. Look, I think the good news here is that there is a lot of people who have obviously made it clear they want to get the vaccine, that demonstrate as real confidence in the vaccine.
MILLAR:
That's a good spin on it because it didn't go too well for a lot of receptionists taking all the phone calls yesterday. We heard from the AMA, they have said the messaging needs to be better, it was bad messaging.
HUME:
I think that, you know, there were potentially teething problems, but this is a really important program. We want to make sure that everybody has had at least their first vaccination - everyone who wants their vaccination has had the first vaccination by the end of October and we're on track to meet that target.
MILLAR:
Jane Hume, thanks for your time.
HUME:
Good to be with you Lisa.