Super reform to relieve the burden for farm businesses
7 Jul 2004
The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has today congratulated the Australian Government on the decision to reduce red tape associated with superannuation as announced by the Prime Minister last night.
“NFF is very pleased that the Government has listened to our concerns and has decided to remove the employer superannuation notification requirements,” NFF Industrial Committee Chair, Mr Duncan Fraser said today “Since the requirement for employers to notify employees was introduced, farmers particularly in the horticultural industry, have inundated NFF with complaints about the difficulties associated with compliance. “Red tape imposed significant burdens on farmers and the superannuation notification requirement, introduced in July last year, substantially increased compliance costs. “The Government’s decision to remove the notification provision as of 1 January 2005 will significantly reduce the compliance burden on Australian farmers.”
Mr Fraser said this problem for farmers would never have arisen if the original legislation had passed through the Senate. “The Government initially proposed a change to the threshold of superannuation eligibility from $450 a month to $1350 per month, superannuation payments to be made monthly, and employers required to notify employees after payment,” Mr Fraser said. “However, the threshold proposal was rejected by the Senate and removed from the legislation, which consequently imposed a red tape burden on small business including farmers, which was never intended by the original proposal.”
NFF supplied substantial information to the Government outlining the problems for farmers in complying with the notification requirements including case studies. “The most obvious frustration for farmers was the high rate of return of the notification documents sent to itinerant workers, who no longer resided at the address supplied to the employer,” Mr Fraser said. “We welcome the Government’s specific acknowledgement of the particular hardship the notification requirements has created for the horticultural industry as large employers of casual and itinerant workers.
“We believe that the existing notification provisions provided to employee through their superannuation fund is more than sufficient. The benefits to employees by also being notified by the employer are outweighed by the compliance burden on business.
“NFF also welcomes the thrust of the Committed to Small Business document released by the Government particularly in relation to workplace relations and Trade Practices Reform. We will continue to work with the Government on all these very important issues that impact on Australian farmers.”
NFF Press Release, 7th July, 2004
by Mairi Barton, General Manager Public Relations, NFF
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