The newly-merged Industry Super Australia (ISA) and the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) organisation will be known as The Super Members Council of Australia.
Operational from 1 October, its purpose will be to protect and advance the interests of members throughout their lives, while earning superannuation at work and benefitting from it in their retirement.
The merger between the two organisations was first mooted in late January and received super fund approval in August. ISA manage collective programs on behalf of nine industry super funds while AIST represent some 36 profit-to-member funds which include industry, corporate, and public sector funds.
Nicola Roxon, chair of HESTA, will act as interim chair and it is seeking a new chief executive.
The foundation funds are eight of Australia’s largest – Australian Retirement Trust, AustralianSuper, Aware Super, Cbus Super, HESTA, Hostplus, Rest Super and UniSuper.
The foundation funds have each nominated a director to the governing board and look forward to welcoming three further directors chosen by the small-to-medium sized profit-to-member funds. An employee and employer representative will each join as non-voting directors.
Roxon said: “The Super Members Council will advocate for the interests of the more than 10 million Australians who belong to a profit-to-member super fund – to ensure superannuation policy is stable, effective and equitable.”
“The nature of work and the workforce itself are changing, as are patterns and expectations in retirement. As many members’ balances grow, those in lower paid or less secure work risk being left behind.
“The long-term interests of millions of Australians will be well served by a new collective body that can be a strong, thoughtful and compelling voice about superannuation policy, advocating to all levels of government and industry.
“Our promise is member-centric advocacy that seeks to work with all political parties to deliver the best possible retirement outcomes for the millions of Australians we represent.”
“The Super Members Council will advocate for the interests of the more than 10 million Australians who belong to a profit-to-member super fund – to ensure superannuation policy is stable, effective and equitable.”
How can it possibly “ensure” any of those things if the Council is a lobby group representing less than half of all Australians that continually advocates for change and is against an already decentralised solution being SMSFs?