Workers risk losing everything under Labor's super rort

Jul 03, 2012, 11:42 PM

Industry super funds are the new rivers of gold for the union bosses. The question must be why won’t the government insist they be properly run. If they go bust it will be the workers w ho will lose.
Julia Gillard and Bill Shorten won't lose a cent. And this is a Labor government. Employers will soon be paying 12% of wages by way of superannuation. By 2025, industry funds are expected to control assets of $1.5 trillion. Despite a massive fall in membership there are now twice as many union bosses as in 1975. The ratio of bosses to members is five times that of Britain’s. They are very well rewarded, these bosses. And not just in their wages. They can look forward to being life-time beneficiaries of that well known rort, “jobs for the boys”. You name it, jobs on government boards, jobs on commissions, seats in parliament, with of course, generous taxpayer funded superannuation - their political friends, the party machines and the factions will ensure these generous benefits will be accessible. In the meantime we’ve seen complaints that union funds are being diverted to pay for such things as holidays for friends and relatives, private school fees and even for prostitutes. There are claims that contracts have been awarded in return for massive secret commissions. And as Jeffrey Babb says in Newsweekly (7/7/12), most workers don’t know that unlike public servants and politicians , their superannuation is not guaranteed. If there aren't lucky enough to be in an industry fund that goes bust they lose their retirement savings.
He says one of the best performing super funds almost collapsed following the global financial crisis.

The problem is the union bosses are being supported by their mates in the Gillard government. A Labor government is actually refusing to accept standards that apply to everybody else in the financial sector.

And why has Minister Bill Shorten rejected a proposal that one third of trustees on industry funds be independent? Is he just looking after the interests of his union mates? In America this scandal would be before a grand jury. In Britain a Royal Commission. But in this country, the government has given us Fair Work Australia. Stop the union bosses rorts. Sign the petition on our site www.cando.org

. And join us in demanding a convention to change the constitution to make the politicians accountable on every day in every week of every month and in every year.
Not just every three or four years.