Election must not hinder real change
Commonwealth departments and agencies should continue to work on the implementation issues around financial services legislation despite the Government being in caretaker mode ahead of the Federal Election, according to Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) chief executive Pauline Vamos.
Vamos has told Money Management that the volume of implementation work remaining to be done was such that the industry would be significantly disadvantaged if agencies simply stopped working on the changes because of the caretaker conventions.
"This is not a time to be simply putting down tools," she said. "We believe that work on the implementation issues flowing from the Stronger Super and other legislation should continue."
Vamos' comments came at the same time as she confirmed her organisation would be moving ahead with holding an industry-wide policy forum on superannuation which might well occur before the holding of the Federal Election on 7 September.
The ASFA-convened policy forum was flagged by Vamos last week in the wake of the Financial Services Council (FSC) and the Industry Super Network (ISN) announcing that they had entered into an agreement around the development of common policy principles on superannuation.
Discussing the number of organisations which had indicated they would be participating in the event, Vamos said she expected that the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) would be represented along with the SMSF Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA), with there also being scope for other industry organisations including the accounting bodies.
She said that while she had announced the calling of the forum in the aftermath of the FSC/ISN agreement, her announcement was consistent with a move which had been signaled some months earlier in the context of forming a clearing house for policy ideas.
At the FSC Conference, FSC chief executive John Brogden joined with the ISN's chief executive David Whiteley to announce the new, combined policy approach.
Brogden referred to the presence of Whiteley at the conference as being to "symbolise a new relationship in superannuation policy in Australia".
"On the eve of the election we are signaling to Canberra that the ISN and the FSC will work together on many key issues impacting fund members," he said. "This is the start of a new era. It is critical that we put our differences of the past aside and focus on building Australia's next major export industry."
It is understood that neither the AIST nor ASFA were aware of the policy agreement between the FSC and ISN before it was announced.
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