Industry must accept super reviews as opportunity, not challenge

The financial services industry needs to regard the current reviews into Australia’s superannuation industry as an opportunity to lock in long-term policy certainty, according to the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen.

The minister used his address to the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) conference on the Gold Coast to claim that the perceived uncertainty surrounding the so-called Cooper Inquiry and the Henry Review of the Tax System needed to be seen in perspective.

He said that the review processes needed to be accepted as a means of locking in long-term policy certainty for superannuation fund members and should be regarded as an opportunity rather than a challenge by the financial services industry.

Bowen echoed the sentiments of his predecessor as superannuation minister, Senator Nick Sherry, in suggesting that the current reviews represented a timely analysis of the superannuation system as it approached its 20th anniversary.

“These reviews represent an opportunity more than a challenge,” he said.

Bowen said the Government’s objective from the review recommendations was simple: “to have an adequate, robust, retirement incomes system”.

“When the reform process is complete, I would like to be in a position where the reform process has been conducted so transparently and that everyone is clear on Government policy, that we will have a stable policy environment for several years to come,” the minister said.

“In other words the reviews, and the Government’s response, will obviate the need for ad hoc policy change so that governments of both political persuasions see no need to embark on further changes for several years,” Bowen said.

The minister also promised the industry a more streamlined approach to product rationalisation.