Sherry accused of skewing review panel

The Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, Senator Nick Sherry, has been criticised for failing to provide an appropriate balance on the committee he has named to review Australia’s superannuation system.

Both analyst reports and industry executives have been critical of the make-up of the committee based on the argument that while the industry funds movement has strong representation, the retail master trusts will have only one certain backer.

The perceived absence of representation for the retail master trusts has been picked up by the Federal Opposition with superannuation spokesman Chris Pearce claiming “key players have been left out as the Government strives to skew the market towards its favoured sectors”.

“This additional review fails to represent all sectors of the industry,” Pearce said. “None of the review panel members represent the retail funds sector.”

In similar fashion, an analyst report from JP Morgan has suggested that only one or possibly two people from a panel of six could be regarded as likely to have a retail funds bias.

The panel will be chaired by the deputy chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Jeremy Cooper, who will be standing aside from his role with the regulator.

The panel members are industry funds stalwart Sandy Grant, former Lazard managing director Brian Wilson, former AMP superannuation specialist Kevin Casey, the acting chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Greg Evans, and Treasury deputy secretary David Gruen.