The shadow treasurer is not happy with the performance of some within the super sector, telling an event in Sydney on Thursday that some funds are obsessed with funds under management, above all else.
EXCLUSIVE Speaking at Momentum Media’s Election 2025 breakfast event in Sydney, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said key under a Coalition government will be pushing funds to prioritise their members, something he said they have neglected over recent years.
“The key is we’ve got to see our super funds industry or retail, absolutely focused on the customers. And some of what we’ve seen in recent days, with death benefits and delays, that’s just unacceptable. It’s completely unacceptable,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s comments follow damning findings from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) late last month, which issued 34 recommendations to trustees after uncovering systemic failures in the handling of death benefit claims. The regulator cited lengthy delays, poor communication, and administrative failings that compounded the grief of beneficiaries.
Adding to the pressure on the sector, several funds were hit by a major cyber breach last week, with reports of stolen credentials and unauthorised withdrawals from member accounts.
In response to these recent controversies, Taylor said: “I think there has been a loss of focus from some of the super funds, and it needs to be fixed.”
He said that while not all funds were to blame, a number had become “obsessed” with growing their funds under management, neglecting their core responsibility to members in the process.
“There are very good players in the sector, but the obsession for some is funds under management over any other metric. You’re not going to get the right outcome. The obsession has to be delivering customers, their members, a great outcome and that outcome will differ through their life cycle,” Taylor said.
“There’s some leading the way on this, and I think doing a really fantastic job, and there’s others that need to catch up. But that relentless customer focus I think has got to be the key.”
Answering an audience question on the role of unions in industry funds, Taylor said that while unions are “an important part of our economy”, “they just have to be aligned with the interests of Australians”.
“That’s the key. And the CFMEU hasn’t been aligned with the interests of Australians. It’s been aligned with the criminal underworld. That’s completely unacceptable. Let’s be clear. That’s why they should be deregistered,” he said.
“The thing about this sector is it works unbelievably well when it’s customer-focused, and it stops working when it’s not. This is true of any sector in the economy. Once they lose focus on serving the needs of customers, you’re vulnerable.”
‘Dead against Div 296’
Taylor also touched on the controversial Div 296 tax – the $3 million super tax – pledging that the Coalition is “dead against it”.
“The good news is it hasn’t yet got through the Parliament, so it doesn’t yet need to be repealed, but I can absolutely assure you it will not go into place if I am the Treasurer of this nation, the national government. We are dead against it,” Taylor said.
“I mean taxing unrealised capital gains, give me a break. They are unrealised. That’s the point. So how do you pay tax amount unrealised gain? You realise it.”
He described the tax as simply a means for Labor to fund “pet projects”.
“They are going to this election with that as a core policy for them, because they want the money and they want to spend it on whatever pet projects they want to spend money on,” he said. “That will not be part of our costings.”
Also speaking at the event, Association of Superannuation Funds Australia (ASFA) CEO Mary Delahunty said that the hand-wringing over taxing unrealised gains is being blown out of proportion.
“ASFA believes that the tax on earnings on assets above $3 million is a worthwhile pursuit, the bill and the shape that it’s currently in, obviously, has some hairs on it,” Delahunty said.
“I’m not as concerned on the taxation of unrealised capital gains as some other commentators are. I think we’re all fairly familiar with land tax, that is also a taxation system that is based on unrealised capital gains.
“Whether or not that means you need to pay the tax at the time, or whether or not there should be some reform done to that bill that would see a debt held over. Those are the sorts of issues I think an incoming government might want to tackle if they want to bring more equity to the tax incentives in superannuation.”
