Shorten accused of favouring large industry funds
The Federal Opposition has defended its stance in voting against legislation designed to lift trustee governance standards within superannuation funds, arguing it was designed to inappropriately favour large industry funds.
Reacting to claims by the Minister for Financial Services, Bill Shorten, that the Coalition was "all talk and no walk" on the super governance issue, the Opposition spokesman on Financial Services, Senator Mathias Cormann, said a scale test embedded in the legislation provided a competitive advantage to the larger industry super funds.
Cormann said the minister was creating barriers for new entrants and was actively driving increased market concentration, leading to a general lessening in competition.
He said if the minister had been genuinely committed to better corporate governance he would have moved immediately to implement the recommendations contained in the Cooper Review by legislating mandatory disclosure of conflicts of interest, provision of independent directors and declarations of conflicts of interest.
Cormann said that a Coalition Government would commit to implementing the recommendations.
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