Senator MURRAY (1:18 PM) —The purpose of the Financial Sector Reform (Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill (No. 1) 1999 and related bills is to enable the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority to extend its power to effect transfers of businesses between authorised deposit taking institutions to credit unions, building societies and friendly societies. The Australian Democrats agree with that broad intention. This will occur on 1 July and has the strong support of those institutions, which anticipate that it will improve their perception in the retail market and that it will not cause them any problems in the transfer from existing state regimes across to a national regime.

The bill exempted the Financial Sector (Transfers of Business) Bill 1999 from the operation of section 63 of the Banking Act 1959, which provides that the consent of the Treasurer must be obtained prior to any merger or restructure of an authorised deposit taking institution. This gave rise to the concern that the bill could be used as a backdoor to circumvent the four pillars policy, particularly given that there is no stipulation in the legislation that the power to effect a transfer of business can only be used where an authorised deposit taking institution is in financial difficulty. The government has, however, amended the draft legislation to ensure that the bill is no longer exempt from the requirement that the Treasurer give consent to a transfer of business by APRA.

There were concerns raised that the remuneration and working conditions of former Commonwealth employees would not be preserved upon their move to the newly established APRA. This situation has occurred before, notably in the case of former CES staff moving to Employment National, and there is concern that a trend of downgrading employment conditions of former Commonwealth employees is becoming apparent. As I understand it, late last night the government acquiesced to an amendment to ensure that the remuneration and working conditions of these employees would be preserved. I would like to compliment Senator Conroy, in particular, and the Labor Party on pursuing this issue and, through their amendments, we believe, ensuring that this matter is improved. I would also note for the record that APRA is an independent authority and therefore I would not expect them to adopt the ideology of the ruling government of the time and to pursue a just and equitable outcome for their new employees in this matter.

Having complimented Senator Conroy, I would like to compliment the government as well because you have been particularly accommodating, as I understand it, in your efforts to ensure that the bills go through and in accepting the Labor amendments. The Democrats record that we will support both the government and Labor amendments and we therefore note in passing our broad support for these bills.