The Albanese Government has announced plans to overhaul previous superannuation fund transparency requirements.
The changes would allow members to access clearer, more meaningful and more consistent information in regards to their super fund.
Assistant treasurer and minister for financial services, Stephen Jones, emphasised that Australians “deserve the highest standards of accountability”.
He added: “Decades of scattergun regulation has resulted in a dog’s breakfast of reporting requirements. It’s confusing for members and onerous for funds.”
The Government had pledged to implement legislation that would parallel the financial and accounting reporting obligations of super funds with the standards of public companies. This would involve the annual and publicly-available filing of financial reports with ASIC.
A ‘Super Transparency Report’ would be published annually as a single source of consistent and granular information. Members would then utilise this report to contrast the performance and expenditure of numerous funds.
Additionally, the reform of existing rules would enhance clarity, minimise duplication and ensure that every reporting stream services a clear purpose.
“We are cleaning up the mess so meaningful, detailed information is made available to members, easily and consistently,” Jones said.
Following regulation introduced by the previous government, super funds were now required to reveal the identity, value and weightings of their investments every six months.
Josh Frydenberg, former treasurer, commented in November 2021: “Reviews of the superannuation system have found that superannuation portfolio disclosure is unduly opaque, does not meet global best practice and that requiring the disclosure of portfolio holdings would provide greater transparency and allow members to understand where their superannuation is invested”.
