Industry super fund suspicion unwarranted, says Peter Collins
The Coalition Government would not find any skeletons in the closet of industry funds if elected at the next election, according to HostPlus director, the hon. Peter Collins AM QC.
He said Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation Mathias Cormann's call for greater transparency was code for greater disclosure on industry involvement in Australia's superannuation system.
"I don't think transparency is going to disclose any shock-horror arrangements whereby money's being slipped out the back door of the Labor party or the unions that run campaigns against coalition governments," he said.
He likened the debate to trying to find weapons of mass destruction where there were none.
"There's a certain element of weapons of mass destruction to that debate. There are none. If there had been … the Coalition would have known about it well before today … those political linkages that some elements in the Coalition imagine might exist simply don't exist" he said.
Collins said he had no issue with transparency, as long as it was levelled across the entire industry.
He credited unions with the Australian super system's success and said a new government would try to decouple industry and superannuation funds.
The media were also guilty of giving super a bad rap, according to Collins.
"The fact is we've got a runaway success with the superannuation system we've achieved. We've got a scheme that's the envy of the world, but if you believe certain elements of the … media … you would think the sky was falling in, that we're one step away from disaster and that all super funds are run by a bunch of crooks," he said.
Collins said the system worked well and there was too much focus on how to get superannuation "right", which was causing regulatory fatigue.
A change of government would result in a greater role for independents, while industry funds would need to shift focus to member retention, he said.
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