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(April-2003) Fast cars, hot pies and super: Barry’s big three
Barry Watchorn, the chair of Australian Retirement Fund (ARF) and deputy chair of CARE Super, was voted Trustee of the Year 2003 at the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds (CMSF) in Hobart last month.
Reasons cited for this accolade were his passion for, and dedication to, the world of super and his wealth of experience in this field. Watchorn’s colleagues also pointed to his humour at board meetings and how he held the fort after CARE Super’s CEO resigned in March last year, until a replacement was found six months later to manage the $1.2 billion industry fund for white collar, professional and managerial employees.
But perhaps what stood out most in many people’s minds was Watchorn’s vision and foresight about what super could become, way back in the mid-1980s.
Watchorn got his first taste of super 20 years ago when working for the Australian Chamber of Manufacturers (ACM), now merged into the Australian Industry Group. Being responsible for industrial relations activities at the ACM, he became involved in the employer campaign against award super.
Watchorn says: “It was a battle that we lost, but the ACM recognised that if superannuation was to be granted by awards, it would be a good thing to set up a fund which could be operated on a co-operative basis.”
This led to the birth of ARF, one of Australia’s large industry funds with assets of $4.2 billion and 511,000 members. But perhaps more importantly, at a time when many industry funds were being established by the unions, ACM’s vision, after discussions with the Australian Council of Trade Unions, led to the establish-ment of the first true equal representative fund where the chair had no casting vote.
However, Watchorn says: “We copped a lot of flack from other employer groups at the time, but within a short period of time they all started copying our trust deed.”
This structure was later incorporated into the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) (SIS) Act and a system that is now applauded and envied all over the world was born.
Watchorn, who qualified as a lawyer, became a trustee of the ACM’s now defunct super fund in 1986 and of the ACM Training Centre Superannuation Funds in 1989. He joined the CARE Super board in 1998 after the death of ACM’s representative to the board, Ron Haggar. He was also chair of CARE Super between 2000 and 2002.
Watchorn has become known not only for his ability to keep the peace at trustee board meetings but also for his weakness for party pies, which are now an obligatory part of the brief lunches taken during these meetings.
His love of pies also led to the start of an “import/export business” when he was posted to Geneva as the Australian Government’s representative to the International Labour Organisation and the OECD’s Manpower and Social Affairs Committee between 1980 and 1983.
Always entertaining and never able to find good finger food for functions, Watchorn organised a trial shipment of pies from Australia. These were soon being dished up to guests at embassy parties. Along with Australian meat, beer and wines, and Port Phillip Bay scallops, which he discovered were being sold at a local shop, these were also served when he and his wife entertained non-Australian guests for dinner at home.
“It was only when we got to dessert that I would have to say that I am sorry but we have to give you some of the local products,” he says.
Watchorn, who was posted to the Australian High Commission in Lagos, Nigeria between 1966 and 1968, and was for six months acting High Commissioner, says wanting to do something worthwhile with his life is what makes him tick.
“Since leaving the government public service, I have always been involved in non-profit activities, firstly through employer organisations and now through super,” he says.
His biggest challenges in recent times have been dealing with volatile investment markets, but, he notes, an ongoing irritation has always been “the failure of governments, of both political persuasions, to come to grips with the real needs of Australians for a viable retirement incomes policies” and their moves to put in place regulations and taxes which restrict the growth of members’ retirement savings.
He asks: “How in God’s name can you justify a system where the employers are forced to pay nine per cent on behalf of members, but the Government then takes 15 per cent so that only 7.65 per cent goes into the super fund, and then taxes up to a further 15 per cent on earnings and then potentially another 15 per cent again, when employees take a lump sum? This is compounded by Reasonable Benefit and Maximum Contribution limits and by the surcharge.”
Describing this system as “absolutely bizarre”, he notes: “It reflects the strange view that has developed amongst bureaucrats and politicians that somehow everything done to give favourable tax treatment to super-annuation gives rise to rorts and rip-offs and has to be penalised. Yet, governments need to cut back on Social Security spending by encouraging individual savings for retirement.”
In his spare time, Watchorn can be found playing tennis or supporting the Essendon football team. He is also a “car freak” with a particular penchant for British sports cars, having a red 1953 MG and a 1966 Aston Martin in his collection.
AUTHOR
Zilla Efrat
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