07:19

A small mystery this parliamentary week is why the Coalition removed a 12-month amnesty for employers who fail to pay workers’ superannuation from a government bill, when the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, told Guardian Australia it remains government policy.

On ABC TV, Christian Porter, minister for industrial relations, was asked where the amnesty is at.



He replied: “It remains in the bill but my recollection as to what precise amendment might have been made on that I couldn’t quite say. I think that’s not one of the matters that was changed. But the bill did go through a range of amendments based on committee recommendations and those amendments were to bring the bill as closely into line with corporations law as could possibly be achieved with respect to registered organisations.”



That answer is wrong – because the amnesty was removed from the Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Superannuation Measures No. 1) bill 2019 - and is also confused, because the second half appears to relate to the Ensuring Integrity bill, which never contained the amnesty.

But in any event, despite the confusion it seems clear the amnesty for employers who don’t pay super IS still policy.