Govt accused of failing to pursue value

Sydney-based superannuation clearing house specialist SuperChoice has accused the Federal Government of not being interested in delivering the best possible value to taxpayers by selecting Medicare as the provider of its super clearing house for small employers.

Commenting on the passage of the legislation establishing the Medicare clearing house arrangement, SuperChoice chief executive Peter Philip said he had to question why the Government felt it needed to compete directly with the superannuation industry “by reinventing the wheel” with its own superannuation clearing house service through Medicare.

He said the superannuation industry now had a large and tough competitor in the Government that would inevitably create some market distortion.

“SuperChoice welcomes competition but would prefer a level playing field rather than having a competitor with unlimited funds that makes the rules and can change them whenever they like,” Philip said.

He said the Government had demonstrated that it was not interested in best value because it could have provided a more complete proven solution, enabling valuable taxpayer funds to be used in reducing the Budget deficit.