Watson calls for return to Keating super policy

A senior Liberal backbencher and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Finance and Administration, Senator John Watson has praised the approach to superannuation by former Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating, at the same time as calling on the ALP to abandon its current policy approach.

In a speech to the Senate late last week, Watson said he agreed with Keating’s statements on free and contestable markets with respect to the provision of superannuation.

“During the Keating years, Labor’s policy on super was, essentially, a market approach,” he said, pointing out that regulation was there to protect individuals from fraud and the less transparent dealings on the parts of some super trustees, financial advisers and fund managers.

Watson said the market approach encouraged by Keating had been working under the Coalition and had not been subject to the systemic failures that had occurred in the United Kingdom, South America and the US.

“I was therefore surprised that Labor rejected its markets doctrine in the 2004 election in favour of strong intervention and strong regulation. I believe that Labor wanted to adopt a revisionist approach to labour markets, and in superannuation it peddled the line that financial planners needed to have their wings clipped by way of banning certain fees and payments and capping certain product prices,” he said.

Watson added that he would therefore be watching with interest to see how Labor’s superannuation policy evolves going forward.

“Will it be more of the same, or will the nostrums of Labor’s super architect, Paul Keating, prevail,” he asked.