Chapter 1

Introduction

Referral and overview of the bill

1.1        On 18 June 2013, the Senate referred the provisions of the Superannuation Laws Amendment (MySuper Capital Gains Tax Relief and Other Measures) Bill 2013 to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 24 June 2013.[1]

1.2        Following amendments to the bill made in the House of Representatives on 20 June 2013, the bill contains three schedules:

• The proposed amendments in schedule 1 would provide income tax relief to superannuation funds where there is a mandatory transfer of default members' account balances to a MySuper product in another entity.
• Schedule 2 relates to the government's Sustaining the superannuation contribution concession reforms. The proposed amendments in schedule 2 would enable the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation to pay a lump sum from a superannuation interest in the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits (DFRDB) scheme to meet a debt account discharge liability.
• Schedule 3 contains proposed amendments that would specify how contributions for default fund employees to whom a modern award applies may be directed to an employer MySuper product.

Conduct of the inquiry

1.3        The committee advertised the inquiry on its website and wrote to relevant stakeholders inviting submissions by 20 June 2013. Due to time constraints, the committee was unable to write to relevant organisation to invite submissions regarding the schedule inserted by the House of Representatives on 20 June 2013; nevertheless the committee did receive evidence regarding these proposed amendments. The committee received seven submissions, which are listed in the appendix.

1.4        The committee thanks all of the organisations that provided a submission to this inquiry, particularly given the short period of time during which the inquiry was conducted.

Consideration of the bill by other committees

1.5        As part of its function of examining bills for compatibility with human rights, and reporting to both Houses of the Parliament on that issue,[2] the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has considered the bill and commented on it in its eighth report of 2013. In that report, the Human Rights Committee noted that it intends to write to the relevant minister to seek their view on the interaction of schedule 2 with the right to social security under article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[3]

Structure of this report

1.6        This report consists of two chapters. Chapter 2 examines the issues that the bill seeks to address and considers the evidence that the committee has received during this inquiry. The committee's conclusions and recommendations can also be found in chapter 2.

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