THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SUNRISE
MONDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 2025
Topics: Collapse of Shield Master Fund and First Guardian.
NATALIE BARR: Let's bring in Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning, Tanya. Some victims may not even know they have lost all their superannuation. What are you doing to get money back for those who have lost it in this disaster?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, this is a devastating situation for the people who've lost their money. And of course ASIC, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, is looking very closely at the people involved. They've had their assets frozen. The people who are thought to be responsible for this had their assets frozen. They're prohibited from travelling overseas. They're being investigated very closely by ASIC and the matters are before the Federal Court. So, we're a little bit limited in what we can say. What I would say is that the Assistant Treasurer, Daniel Mulino, is guiding this very closely to make sure that it is properly investigated and people are held to account if they've done the wrong thing. And can I advise that ASIC has a Moneysmart website. It is a great idea now for people to have a look at that Moneysmart website if they're thinking about changing where their superannuation is, please check before you do, rather than go into to these higher risk, higher return areas, it is really important to get good, unbiased, unbiased financial advice.
BARR: Tanya, the thing with this is, these weren't some dodgy callers from Nigeria. These were platforms on Australian websites, some with names like Macquarie and Equity Trustees and the people put them, hardworking Australians put their money in often all of their super. They put low risk, they signed forms where they put low risk investments. They didn't want the high risk and this is what's happened to them. They thought that their superannuation was guaranteed by the government. How confident are you that ASIC is on top of this?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I think ASIC's got more than 40 people investigating this right now, Nat. And as it is before the courts as well, we have to be a bit careful about offering opinions on what's happened here. But of course it is absolutely devastating for the people who are the victims of this and they should have a right to expect that when they put their money into a well-known superannuation account that it's going to be there for them.
BARR: Barnaby, are you confident that ASIC is on top of it?
BARNABY JOYCE: No, I'm not. And the question that's going to be asked by, this is a tragedy for these people. They've gone from living in a house to living in housing commission homes and cost of living crisis. How are they going to get through this? They've done absolutely the right thing and this will be financially and personally devastating. Now they've got 40, ASIC had 40 people investigating it now. The question that will be asked is why weren't you investigating it before? The horse has bolted. This has gone to scams all around the world. It's gone into people's pockets. They found safes full of jewellery and cash. You know this is just straight out graft and well, it's just theft, it's worse. They might as well broken into a bank and stolen the money from that, $1.2 billion. Now I think what the Australian people will expect today is serious questions asked in the Parliament at Question Time, not Dorothy Dixers that forensically get to the bottom of this and give the Australian people as much information as they deserve, especially these people and their $1.2 billion. And no, unfortunately when you find two, you don't think you've found all, you just found two. These are not family self-managed funds. Let's remember that, the people who invest in family self-managed funds actually watch their money very closely and we obviously we have some very reliable funds. But now that a lot of questions have to be asked about so many others.
BARR: Yeah, Tanya, ASIC is being described as a sick regulator. There was a Senate Inquiry that did a report, it was handed to your government 14 months ago. There were 11 recommendations saying ASIC needs more resources, it is sick. And during that time more Australians lost all their super. Why was there no response about that report from your government?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I'm sure Daniel Mulino, the Assistant Treasurer will be addressing those issues and we want to make sure that ASIC and organisations like that, that are so critical to keeping Australians safe have the resources they need to do their work properly. It is absolutely devastating for these people and there's no doubt about that.
BARR: You're right. It's a matter of resources.
JOYCE: Well they're not keeping resources, they're not keeping their money safe. That's the problem.
BARR: Exactly.
JOYCE: They're not keeping their money safe.
BARR: And ASIC was warned. So, ASIC sounds like they've got 40 people on this. They need dozens. Tanya, can you tell someone? Because on behalf of the 12,500 Australians who've lost their life savings, these are hardworking Australians, nurses, people who put the icing on the biscuits in the Arnott's factory and they have, they are at their wits end. They don't see a future here. Can you go and tell the government that these people don't see any future and they need help. Can you go and get some more help for ASIC? They need like 100 people to investigate these people.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Nat, we know that these people deserve to have the loss of their super investigated thoroughly. I'm sure that Daniel Mulino as the Assistant Treasurer will make sure that every resource is available to do that. We do take it seriously. Superannuation is something that the Labor Party has always supported because we want people to be able to retire with dignity.
JOYCE: Well these people can’t.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We know that when you work hard all your life you –
BARR: They're sitting there in their lounge rooms bawling their eyes out. They don't –
JOYCE: They can't retire with dignity because their money's gone. You know, this is. It's not –
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And that's exactly why it's being investigated right now.
JOYCE: It's too late.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It's why the assets has been frozen of the people involved in setting up these things.
JOYCE: It's too late. You had report ages ago. It's too late.
BARR: You guys had the report 14 months ago. It wasn't investigated and ASIC's sitting there with not enough people.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I can tell you that it's being investigated now. The matters are before the courts and we need to let the investigations and the court processes be done thoroughly so that people have the ability to see their money return.
JOYCE: It's actually not my responsibility to say if there's any other super funds. Do you believe Tanya, there's any other super funds that this is a problem for?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I don't think anybody could say that we're never going to see another fraud anywhere ever, Barnaby. And you know, there were -
JOYCE: But this is major, this is big, we're talking billions of dollars. We're talking thousands of people.
BARR: Ok well that, that is –
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: People who lost money when you were in government too. What we need to do is, is make it as safe a system as possible.
BARR: Exactly, and after –
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We need to have it as safe a system as possible.
JOYCE: Well you obviously haven't.
BARR: This is front page around the country and once people see that, I can tell you people are worried. So, ASIC needs more resources. Thank you very much. This is a huge story.
ENDS
