The Federal Opposition has ridiculed the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation Bill Shorten for announcing a “Charter Group” to oversee a “Charter of Superannuation Adequacy and Sustainability”.
Just minutes after Shorten had announced the formation of the group, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann dismissed it as a waste of time.
He claimed the minister had “established a Committee to advise him on the establishment of another committee to stop future governments from doing the bad things Labor has done to superannuation taxation over the past five years”.
Addressing the Queensland Media Club, Shorten said the charter group would be made up of former Federal Court judge, Alan Goldberg, the deputy chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), Ross Jones, former Cooper Review chairman, Jeremy Cooper, former AustralianSuper chair, Elana Rubin and former MLC planning boss, Steve Tucker.
The minister said the Charter Group would be seeking input on the establishment of a Council of Superannuation Custodians which would, in turn, “act as an impartial, expert superannuation body which protects the integrity of the scheme and ensure the policy settings are consistent with the core objects, values and principles.
The research house has offered a silver lining after super fund returns saw the end of a five-month streak last month.
A survey of almost 6,000 fund members has identified weakening retirement confidence, particularly among those under 55 years of age, signalling an opportunity for super funds to better engage with members on their retirement journey.
The funds have confirmed the signing of a successor fund transfer deed, moving closer to creating a new $29 billion entity.
A number of measures, including super on Paid Parental Leave, funding to recover unpaid super, and frameworks to encourage investment in the energy transition, have been welcomed by the superannuation industry.
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