Govt leverages Royal Commission on super changes
The Federal Government has removed any doubt that it intends using the findings of the Trade Union Royal Commission to force changes to the superannuation fund settings, particularly with respect to fund governance and injecting choice into default fund arrangements.
The degree to which the Government will rely on the Royal Commission findings to achieve its superannuation objectives was outlined by Assistant Treasurer, Kelly O'Dwyer,who used a radio interview to state that the Royal Commission had uncovered "questionable agreements" between superannuation funds and unions.
"I certainly think there are some questionable agreements that have gone on and I think we've seen from the Royal Commission very recently some pretty egregious examples of some of the things that have been going on in the superannuation industry," she said.
"You only need to take the example of what happened with the Transport Workers Union when its Assistant State Secretary in Tasmania was paid by TWU Super, for two and a half days work as Superannuation Liaison Officer, he was paid $93,000."
The minister said that, under questioning in the Royal Commission it was acknowledged that perhaps the arrangement wasn't really in the best interests of those people who had contributed to that Superannuation Fund.
"I think what we want to see here is that all Australians can maximise their retirement incomes, to get rid of these vested interests, to make sure that those people who want to choose their funds, have the ability to do it. We are simply saying that people should have the ability to choose this fund if they want to, if they don't they can go into a default fund but if they want to choose it they should have that right," O'Dwyer said.
Earlier in the interview, the minister acknowledged that Australia's two largest grocery retailers — Coles and Woolworths — were party to enterprise agreements which directed members to particular superannuation funds and said "A lot of big employers have enterprise bargaining agreements which means that they trade away the rights of their employees when it comes to choosing their own superannuation fund."
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