Govt protecting industry funds, says Opposition

federal-opposition/industry-superannuation-funds/senator-mathias-cormann/industry-funds/government/cooper-review/default-funds/assistant-treasurer/trustee/mysuper/

17 December 2010
| By Mike Taylor |
image
image
expand image

The Federal Opposition has accused the Government of choosing to ignore the elements of the Cooper Review that would have disadvantaged industry superannuation funds and the way they operated.

The Opposition spokesman on Financial Services, Senator Mathias Cormann (pictured), raised the Government’s failure to endorse the recommendation that would have prevented superannuation fund directors sitting on multiple boards.

He also referenced the Government’s intention to do nothing about default funds via the implementation of MySuper until 2013.

The Federal Opposition’s spokesman’s reference to multiple directorships aims directly at industry funds where certain figures sit on the Trustee boards of both major funds and bodies over-arching those funds.

He said the Federal Opposition was concerned the Government seemed to have either opposed or ignored many of the recommendations to strengthen superannuation governance arrangements.

“Why would the Government not support a recommendation to require independent directors on superannuation boards?” he asked. “Why would the Government not support recommendations which say that directors should only sit on one board and not multiple boards, which goes to the issue of conflict of interest.

Cormann said the answer to the questions was that the Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten, had let his union bias get in the way of public interest.

Cormann made clear that the Federal Opposition would not be simply rubber-stamping the Government’s approach to the Cooper Review recommendations and would be urging reconsideration of the governance arrangements and the need for better competition in the default superannuation market.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months 1 week ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months 1 week ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

3 weeks 2 days ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

2 weeks 1 day ago

One licensee has lost 27 advisers in the past week, now sitting at zero, according to the latest Wealth Data figures....

3 weeks 2 days ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS