The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has made clear it will be closely examining any industry superannuation advertising campaigns supporting the Government’s proposed resource companies super profits tax.
The regulator has told a Parliamentary Committee that while it has accepted the industry fund’s ‘Compare the Pair’ campaign as generally falling within the sole purpose test, it would have a different view about a more generic advertising campaign.
Giving evidence to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, APRA executive general manager Keith Chapman said that while the regulator did not always find out about such campaigns in advance, it would look at any new campaign “for the purpose of deciding whether it was an appropriate use of members’ money”.
“One of the issues there is always where the money comes from,” he said. “Is it coming directly from the fund or is it coming from another source? “
“Those are all issues we look at as a matter of course when we are looking at how the fund is being used, because the sole purpose test is a pretty fundamental cornerstone of the whole superannuation system,” Chapman said.
Commenting on a question of whether industry funds could fund a campaign about the super profits tax, Chapman likened it to advocating that superannuation funds should not invest in cigarette companies.
“It would be hard to conclude that some sort of generic campaign would fit within the sole purpose of an individual fund,” he said.
