There's a lot of stuff to write about, considering the clusterf*ck we have for a government and the continual fresh fodder. It was a toss up between Craig Kelly and his borderline Trump sycophantic issues while supplying the public with misleading medical information and Tim Wilson on a one-man mission to discredit industry super while providing illegal financial advice online. Tim Wilson proved to be the more interesting nefarious fustilarian-of-the-moment after a nonspecific online search into him and ongoing corruption.
Tim Wilson made it through preselection by a mere two votes against Dr Denis Dragovic in 2016 and went on to win the seat of Goldstein with a good margin, although there was a swing against the Liberals. The division of Goldstein was created in 1984 and has been a safe Liberal-held seat ever since. Which is the only reason he's still there.
For such a short period in government, Tim Wilson has been very busy. I only have to type into Google "Tim Wilson" and "scandal" and I am greeted by a plethora of informative links on just how busy Wilson has been. But I will return to that.
Wilson has been a member of the Liberal party for considerably longer than he has been an elected politician. Unbelievably, he was the president of the student union at Monash University for two or three years but that was more for self-promotional purposes and networking to put himself out there publicly rather than any real affiliation to any type of union movement itself.
Tim Wilson has always been about self-promotion and himself. You only have to review his declared property portfolio and other interests in the Register of Members Interests to know he's not backward in letting everybody know just what he owns or has an interest in. One has to wonder what he doesn't disclose.
What Wilson tends not to reveal is his proclivity to lie to weasel his way into positions of influence and push his way up the ladder. Wilson made a beeline for the IPA in 2007 and stayed there for seven years. Apart from a failed attempt to become the deputy mayor of Melbourne in 2008, he was the IPA director of climate change policy, free trade and avid commentator on everything right wing, including his aversion to government handouts - which ironically didn't include himself or his cronies. During his time at the IPA, Wilson constantly called for the abolition of the Human Rights Commission, argued for political policy over scientific evidence and argued in support of tobacco companies and against plain packaging. One has to wonder if tobacco companies donate to the IPA, which is difficult to determine, given the IPA's propensity not to disclose their donors. On top of that Wilson has also been a constant critic of the Chinese Communist Party.
What Tim Wilson does have are friends in powerful places. Which probably stems from his ability to market himself effectively and his flexibility with regard to following the coin in whatever direction it happens to fall. He is one of Murdoch's favourites, appearing on Sky News frequently - getting out there with self-promotion and hypothesising rabidly on the dangers of Dan Andrews. He was also a favourite of George Brandis.
In 2014 George Brandis created the high-paying job of Human Rights Commissioner and appointed Tim Wilson for the position without any selection process. There were many questions regarding this appointment, considering Wilson's position during his tenure at the IPA regarding the abolition of the Human Rights Commission and considering there was no extra funding made available for the position. Valuable funding was cut to other parts of the Human Rights Commission to employ Wilson.
According to the IPA on reflection after Wilson's appointment - the Human Rights Commission weren't doing their job properly and Wilson was here to "restore balance". In my opinion, the position was created to undermine the work of the Human Rights Commission and to target Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, which deals with "offensive behaviour because of race, colour, or national or ethnic origin in Australia". Section 18C had been used to prosecute News Corp Australia's Andrew Bolt for "publishing deceptive and offensive material about Indigenous people". George Brandis festered over this outcome and once in government he was making this issue a priority. Hence, golden-boy, Wilson's eagerness to get in there and "repeal Section 18C".
As we know, the proposed changes to Section 18C were defeated and Wilson's decision to toe the Brandis-Coalition line put him at odds with the president of the Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs. We all know how that ended as well. Wilson scuttled off with a whimper, decided to renew his Liberal membership and stand for preselection in 2016 for the Liberal party. The rest is dodgy political history. It is also worth mentioning that during Wilson's time as Human Rights Commissioner, Gillian Triggs was under constant attack from Tony Abbott and George Brandis. One merely has to join the dots.
While still Human Rights Commissioner, more than likely when it became clear he would not be there for much longer, Wilson assisted the IPA and solicited Liberal party endorsement. In my opinion, this is a direct conflict of interest, considering Wilson's earlier remarks against the Human Rights Commission while employed at the IPA. Now seeking to move onto the Liberal party with a clear agenda, Wilson becomes a chameleon of opinions with zero neutrality, regardless of the code of conduct he should have embraced as an employee of the Human Rights Commission. Wilson used his official Human Rights Commissioner email account in an attempt to not only gain information, but to use his esteemed title for maximum benefit.
After Scott Morrison deposed Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister, he appointed Wilson as "Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics". It was after this that the committee launched an inquiry into Labor's proposed changes to refundable franking credits. Wilson then went on to hold a series of public hearings around the country. Apart from taxpayer's forking out for Wilson and a host of other MPs to fly around the country to attend these hearings, Wilson was referred to the AFP by Labor over claims that "personal data from a government agency was given to a fund manager". Wilson didn't disclose that he invested in two separate funds that are managed by "Wilson Asset Management" - a company that was campaigning against the proposed tax reform. He was also criticised for using parliament's coat of arms on a campaign website specifically to oppose the Labor franking credit policy.
As an instigator of the "retiree tax" slogan before the 2019 election, Wilson, along with the Coalition, managed to convince scores of pensioners around the country that Labor was "going to take their money". So successful were these lies, people were turning up to Centrelink offices after the election who did not even have franking credits, asking when they would be receiving their franking credit cash.
Tim Wilson once again took it upon himself to write to the Human Rights Commission in the midst of the pandemic to complain about the Victorian government lock down and what he perceived to be an attempt by Daniel Andrews to thwart Victorian's 'rights and freedoms' because a curfew had been imposed. Dan Andrews dismissed Wilson's claims, as it "wasn't about human rights, it was about human lives". Something that Wilson conveniently overlooks. Wilson was a part of the right-wing media attacks on Dan Andrews throughout the pandemic and undoubtedly contributed to the anti-lock down protests in Victoria.
Wilson's latest attacks on industry super are the most worrying. He has been chipping away for some time, sending letters of inquiry to industry super funds and urging APRA to investigate any potential conflicts of interest 'arising from industry superannuation funds and their vertical integration models'. Wilson is constantly in the media or on social media engaging in negative campaigns against industry superannuation while largely leaving for-profit retail superannuation alone.
Tim Wilson is not the only MP who is agitating against a superannuation increase for Australian workers - but right now he is the most vocal and most vindictive. The superannuation guarantee by rights should go ahead and be increased to the previously legislated 10% in July 2021, moving forward in increments to 12% by 2025. This is not too much to ask, considering politicians received a whopping 15.4% superannuation in 2020. The reality is the next planned and legislated increase in superannuation for workers is a mere 0.5% and the government is looking for ways to thwart the increase. This is a small increase and will not affect business to the extent that government would have us believe economically.
The government and various other interests, notably the IPA and business are arguing for an "opt-in, opt-out" super scheme - and this is starting to be pushed by the media and politicians. The floated idea is that you receive more money in your pocket instead of your super. More money to save or buy a house, they are saying.
The "opt out" scheme aligns with the government pork pie of home ownership over the superannuation guarantee. This will become the next big thing since the "death tax" or "franking credits". The government and the media will embark on a campaign to convince people that they need to enter the home ownership market - and to do that they can either opt out of their superannuation or apply to get a portion of their superannuation for the first home as a deposit. Which is not what superannuation was designed for in the first place and at this point is not legal.
Tim Wilson went further in a tweet encouraging people to access their super before the temporary early release of Covid superannuation expired on 31st December 2020. He did this under the guise that superannuation could be used as a deposit for a first home. Wilson was accused of giving unlicenced financial advice and was reported to ASIC.
There is certainly a push by the government to overhaul the superannuation system. Their argument is that this will be beneficial in allowing young people to break into the housing market and will become the new economic mantra in 2021. Business will back this because it gets them off the hook. Business will also benefit two-fold because there will be no discernible pay rises to come for at least two years if the government get their way with industrial relations reform.
The government are trying to convince a section of our community that they are doing the right thing by them and this is a good plan right now. What they don't talk about is the future. The government is focusing on promoting a 'now' dream because it doesn't matter 40 years into the future if these people don't have a retirement plan. This government won't be around to see the damage they have caused. That extra 2.5% in some cases would increase a retirement income by up to $200,000. And right now this government have done so much damage to the economy and the social structure of our democracy over the last seven years that 'now' is all that some people can see. The pandemic will be blamed for the economic downturn and unemployment, despite the fact that we were in a downturn with high unemployment before the pandemic.
If ultimately, our young people do manage to get together a deposit for a home without adding to their super, what happens when they are due to retire? Will the government of the day make them sell off their only asset - the holy grail that was so unattainable many years before because they were paying into super?
Superannuation was set up initially for the benefit of retirement. That is the only reason it was set up. It wasn't set up to draw from for home deposits which doesn't come under the extreme hardship clause. Superannuation is compulsory and it should remain so. It remains the safety net of many Australian workers. If superannuation is so bad and needs to be reformed - then why are the government only pressuring industry super funds?
An ideologically driven government can't bare to think that anything that has been conceived from unionism has done so well and prospered. This gives one an insight into how this government think. Workers are not ultimately here to prosper. They are here to bear the load while profit is made from the labour that workers supply.
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