Industry faces another big year of lobbying

Next year will be at least as big as 2010 in terms of industry lobbying Government over reforms, according to Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) chief executive Pauline Vamos.

Central to the agenda will be the implementation of the Cooper Review reforms, with Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten due to respond on the subject by 20 December this year, Vamos told Super Review.

“Some things we will agree [on], some we will disagree [on]. There will be lots of advocacy and consultation,” she said.

Also taking priority will be Budget submissions and the tax summit, which Vamos said would be crucial to the post retirement space.

“We want to focus on post retirement and encourage people to take retirement income streams,” she said.

Also important is getting the increased superannuation guarantee (SG) through, but that shouldn’t be part of the tax summit, she said.

“Government policy has been set, it’s now up to the industry to sell it to the Opposition and sell it to employers. Consumers are over the line, having enough money in retirement is the number one financial worry. People are now worried, especially women, and they want a better lifestyle in retirement,” Vamos said.

The rise in the SG will be potentially the industry’s biggest advocacy concern, and it was important all stakeholders realised that history will repeat itself — as with previous increases and implementations of the SG there won’t be a financial implosion, business won’t go bankrupt and the rise will be covered by wage negotiation, she said.

The Future of Financial Advice Reforms (FOFA) will need to look at helping low income earners access cost effective and high quality financial advice, and this was not necessarily restricted to intra-fund advice, she said.

“Consolation has progressed but there is still a long way to go on the detail to get the legislation through. The main policy outcome has to be raising the standard for full financial planners [and] ensuring the average person on the street can get access to low cost information about super. Intra-fund is part of it, but we don’t want that getting lost in the overall argument about planners.”