Dear Department of the House of Representatives,

The Department of the House of Representatives provides services to support the efficient conduct of the House of Representatives, its committees and certain joint committees as well as a range of services and facilities for Members in Parliament House.

In my submission to the inquiry into the Life Insurance Industry being conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services I made mention of the Superannuation Safety Amendment Act 2004 which amended the provisions of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 by adding Section 29L and 29M .

Section 29L empowered the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to register large superannuation funds.

A requirement for fund registration was that the trustee of the fund had to provide APRA with a copy of the Trust Deed which established the fund along with copies of other documents which form the governing rules of the fund.

In my third Submission to the Life Insurance Inquiry I advised the Committee that a document dated 26 August 1986 had been dishonesty and criminally misrepresented to APRA as the Trust Deed of the superannuation scheme in question when the genuine Trust Deed was dated 23 December 1913.

However instead of obtaining a copy of the genuine Trust Deed, APRA contravened Section 29M of the SIS Act and granted Registration Number R1004830 based on the fraudulent document dated 26 August 1986.

APRA has taken no action against the criminal conduct of the trustee Director who contravened Sections 136.1 and 137.2 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).

There is no provision for a death benefit to widows in the fraudulent 26 August 1986 document, whilst a death benefit is provided in the 1913 Trust Deed which was improved in two subsequent amending Deeds.

The Life Insurance Inquiry is concerned about the non-payment or delayed payment of life insurance benefits whether obtained directly from a life insurance company or by way of superannuation fund membership.

The Committee can hardly overlook the non-payment of death benefits to widows in their time of need and distress by a major bank.

The documents I seek are:

(i) Any correspondence between the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Corporations And Financial Services and APRA in relation to registering this superannuation fund without obtaining a copy of the genuine Trust Deed; and
(ii) Any other correspondence between Committee and APRA in relation to the Life Insurance Inquiry.

Yours faithfully,

Phillip Sweeney