The SPEAKER ( Hon. Tony Smith ) took the chair at 12:00, made an acknowledgement of country and read prayers.
Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Measures No. 2) Bill 2019
Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Amendment (Improving Safety) Bill 2019
That the second reading be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
The House divided. [12:07]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)
National Integrity Commission Bill 2018 (No. 2)
That consideration of the message be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
That consideration of the message be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
That all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: 'the message be considered immediately'.
That the question be put.
Speakers have also taken the view that in respect of business such as consideration of Senate messages, the call should, in the first instance, be given to the Minister or Parliamentary Secretary expected to have responsibility for the matter.
The House divided. [12:18]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)
The House divided. [12:21]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)
Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Measures No. 3) Bill 2019
That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:
"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House criticises the Government and the responsible Ministers for their mishandling of and delays to the reforms to professional standards for financial advisers, resulting in significant uncertainty for both members of the industry and consumers".
There must be recognition that conflicts of interests and conflicts between duty and interest should be eliminated rather than 'managed' …
I believe any selling fees above say 0.25% are large enough to conflict financial advisers, especially when this selling fee is added to the other transaction fees, including arranger fees and manager fees, which can easily push it above 1%.
The final report of the royal commission said that exceptions to the ban on conflicted remuneration should be eliminated, and this evidence demonstrates how important it will be to do just that when the government reviews the quality of financial advice in two years' time.
I provide advice and service to a range of clients across the age and wealth spectrum, from a lady in her 60s who has been on the Disability Support Pension for many years, to some young clients with young children that are looking at options regarding renovating their current house or moving, to clients that have either retired or about to retire and who in some cases are looking at applying for the age pension through to clients that are multi-millionaires.
The Code of Ethics, as it currently stands, needs to be implemented on 1 January 2020, some 4½ weeks away—
However, the body implementing the Code, the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority, or FASEA, has not yet provided its final framework, despite the fact that some of the obligations listed in their most recent draft guidance will have a profound impact on myself and a number of my clients. My concern is that due to the wording of the guidance almost every financial planner in the country will be in breach of the Code of Ethics on 1 January.
It would be both wise and practical for new legislation to be applied to all parties providing financial advice (self-employed financial advisors and financial institutions and the banks); there should be a 6 to 12 month transition and implementation period; and the absurd anomalies in the current proposed changes be reviewed with consultation with the practitioners it directly affects.
A Code of Ethics will be applied by law from 1 January 2020, and financial advisers will be expected to meet the code's high ethical standards.
… the Government announced it will accelerate the establishment of a new disciplinary system and single disciplinary body for financial advisers …
As announced on 14 November 2019, ASIC has taken action to provide certainty to Australian financial services (AFS) licensees that they will not be in breach of the law because their financial advisers were not able to register with an ASIC-approved compliance scheme by 1 January 2020, as originally required.
ASIC's action follows a Government announcement that it would accelerate the establishment of a single disciplinary body for financial advisers and the withdrawal of applications for ASIC approval of a compliance scheme.
Treasury Laws Amendment (Reuniting More Superannuation) Bill 2020
That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:
"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:
(1) notes that Labor created Australia's superannuation system so that every Australian can have dignity in retirement;
(2) criticises Government members who would see Australia's world class superannuation system become voluntary for working class Australians; and
(3) further notes that too many Australians retire without adequate retirement savings, which is why our superannuation system needs to be strengthened and protected, not undermined".
The strong fundamentals include: world class endowments of natural resources; a highly skilled and innovative workforce; an established and predictable regulatory system; sound public finances; a diverse and growing population; and being well placed to benefit from the strong growth in Asia, not just in China, but also in the populous countries of Indonesia and India.
We have got a real risk particularly with solar panels and lithium batteries that they could turn out to be this generation's asbestos.
"As an electrical engineer I can tell you solar panels don’t work in the dark,” Mr Pitt told the ABC in July 2019. "We can’t have the entire Australian economy be reliant on the weather. Otherwise you’d only be working between 11am and 3pm in the afternoon if it’s just on solar. You won’t do anything in the dark."
The Government’s failure to deliver adequate aged care services to older Australians.
New aged care assessment arrangements will provide streamlined consumer assessment for access to aged care services from April 2021.
NSW has major concerns … It seems pre-emptive and unreasonable to be effectively privatising health aged-care services while the royal commission into aged care is still underway.
Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Measures No. 3) Bill 2019
The House divided. [16:19]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)
(1) Clause 2, page 2 (at the end of the table), add:
(2) Page 71 (after line 3), at the end of the Bill, add:
Schedule 4—Removing conflicted remuneration exemptions
Corporations Act 2001
1 After subsection 963B(1)
Insert:
(1A) Despite paragraph (1) (e), regulations made for the purposes of that paragraph have no effect to the extent the regulations prescribe a monetary benefit relating to any of the following:
(a) interests in a managed investment scheme that are, or are proposed to be, quoted on a prescribed financial market;
(b) interests in a listed investment company (within the meaning of section 115-290 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 ).
2 Application provision
The amendments made by this Schedule apply in relation to monetary benefits given on or after the commencement of this Schedule.
… any benefit, whether monetary or non-monetary, given to a financial services licensee, or a representative of a financial services licensee, who provides financial product advice to persons as retail clients that, because of the nature of the benefit or the circumstances in which it is given:
(a) could reasonably be expected to influence the choice of financial product …
… there has been a tsunami of new listed investment companies (LICs) and listed investment trusts (LITs) launched since 2017, raising more than $6 billion for fund managers who have paid brokers/advisers enormous sales commissions of up to 3 per cent of the value of the capital contributed by mums and dads.
The House divided. [16:41]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)
That this bill be now read third time.
Treasury Laws Amendment (Reuniting More Superannuation) Bill 2020
The House divided. [17:05]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)
That this bill be now read a third time.
Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2019
Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Regulatory Levies) Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2019
That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:
"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes the Government's failure to adequately promote the development and commercialisation of carbon reducing technologies".
The House divided. [17:44]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)
That this bill be now read a third time.
Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Regulatory Levies) Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2019
That this bill be now read a third time.
Treasury Laws Amendment (Your Superannuation, Your Choice) Bill 2019
That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:
"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:
(1) notes that too many Australians retire without adequate retirement savings; and
(2) reaffirms its commitment to the legislated superannuation guarantee rise to 12 per cent by 2025".
And most of all, we want the settings that underpin the system to be focused exclusively on the interests of members—on maximising their retirement savings from the first contribution and throughout their working life.
Overall, we found the fewer the restrictions or limitations placed on individual choice, either by employees or by employers, the worse the overall performance outcomes were for employees. Of the six main cohorts identified, employees under agreements with 'collective choice' or 'group choice' were the most likely to be placed in high-performing funds and almost the least-likely to be placed into under-performing funds.
I would like to know why the Government has cut the bulk billing incentive and why the cut has not been publicised.
From January 2020, my GP will no longer bulk bill my visit, which means if you include the consult, each script will now cost us $18.50. It used to cost us just $6.60, which was just the medication.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mrs Wicks) took the chair at 16:00.
I do not breath deeply in my own home at this time. The smoke is too thick, my eyes sting except for when I am asleep, my throat burns, my nose bleeds.
I like many others in this community fear greatly what this future will look like if the approval of additional stations to mine and burn coal, gas and oil continue, in conjunction with the negligent and despicable lack of climate action by the Coalition.
The last two weeks have been miserable and I'm feeling so lost and discouraged. I'm a disabled pensioner that works part time and studies part time. My house doesn't have air conditioning. The smoke that has smothered Canberra is literally suffocating the poor with no air conditioning. With nearly 40 degree weather we are experiencing, we have to literally choose which health deterioration we'd prefer to deal with. Should we swelter in the heat? Which for me, hurts my health … and my physical stress goes through the roof. Should we open the windows … to cool our homes? Sweet relief but at what cost? My home filled with smoke and breathing it in. Everywhere I look, the instructions are to 'run your air conditioner' to clean the air and keep cool. Renters, pensioners, like me, aren't so lucky to be able to have houses that are temperature efficient, keep the smoke out, or have air conditioning.
The cruelty shown to horses at Merimist Abattoir on the ABC 7.30 report: The Final Race was unacceptable. We are petitioning the House because export abattoirs fall under Federal Government jurisdiction. While there is no excuse for cruelty, a major difficulty was that the abattoir is designed for cattle, not horses. *The footing is not right for horses causing them to fall down and be trampled by those behind. *The overhead walkways are too low causing them to refuse to go forward into the slaughter area. *There are no doors to prevent horses seeing what is happening to the one being killed. *The actions of untrained personnel cause panic in already frightened animals. *The use of the cattle electric prod only exacerbates the problem.
We therefore ask the House to call for the following upgrades and reforms to horse abattoirs: *Horse appropriate status with doors to prevent horses seeing what is happening to the one ahead. Cattle abattoirs are not suitable for horses. *Standards for animal welfare maintained at the highest level and rigorously policed. *Transparency – cameras and monitoring by independent inspectors. *Banning of the jigger (electric prod). It is already banned in the horse industry. *Training of personnel in equine behaviour to ensure humane treatment.
Fuel load rules. Spending resources and intellectual capital on climate change considerations are as effective at mitigating bushfires as changing the colour of the paper used in reporting them.
There is low confidence in attributing changes in drought over global land areas since the mid-20th century to human influence owing to observational uncertainties and difficulties in distinguishing decadal-scale variability in drought from long-term trends.
High confidence for droughts during the last millennium of greater magnitude and longer duration than those observed since the beginning of the 20th century in many regions.
… seasonal and annual precipitation over the last century is found to be stationary in most (but not all) regions. These findings suggest that the Australian precipitation has largely remained within the bounds of observed variability …
Our current laws are failing because they are too weak, have inadequate review and approval processes, and are not overseen by an effective compliance regime.
The current emission reduction targets of Australia and the world are insufficient and will commit us to 3°C or more of warming by the end of this century.
We call on our leaders to unite to develop non-partisan, long-term policies that will enable the managed transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 that the scientific evidence shows is required to avoid dangerous human-caused climate change.
So it is rational, perhaps even necessary, to recruit the notion of hope for the purposes of justice. And this is why the rhetoric of hope has all but disappeared. We can seriously employ the rhetoric of hope only when we believe that citizens can be brought to develop a shared commitment to exploring ambitious projects of social justice, even when they disagree about their content. This belief has become increasingly implausible in light of recent developments that reveal how divided Western democracies really are. A sizable minority in Europe and the US has made it clear, in response to the rhetoric of hope, that it disagrees not only about the meaning of justice but also with the very idea that our current vocabulary of social justice ought to be extended. One can, of course, still individually hope that those who hold this view will be convinced to change it. As things stand, however, this is not a hope that they are able to share.