Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

You are right, Senator Abetz; I have already said that. As the Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, I wrote to the commission and said, ‘Look, you are continuing on past practice over the last 20 years, but I would ask you, the commission, to look at criteria—and, in particular, long-term investment performance; I think that is pretty fundamental and often is a reflection of fees—for defining what a default fund should be in the best interests of the member.’ For one, the data is not publicly available. They cannot get the data; no-one can get the data yet. I want to make data about the long-term performance of these funds publicly available. The commission, I assume, did not have the expertise to do that, but I did ask them to do it.

Now, I do not think we should leave it there. I have said that we do need criteria for a default fund. I put that on the public record. I indicated a few minutes ago that we are going to have a policy process in the context of superannuation and all of these contentious issues and the way the system is operating can be examined. I am more than happy to put that on the record, and I have indicated that to various people. But we should not be making significant changes in the context of this debate and this legislation. These proposed changes are significant in their implications. People can argue about the outcomes and who gets what, but there will be a significant change in the status of default funds if your amendment is passed. I argue that it is not the appropriate time. Let us look at these issues as a whole, develop some effective policy, have some criteria in this area for default funds—whether it goes into statute or not remains to be seen—and do the job thoroughly in that way rather than trying to arbitrate between contending parties at the present time. We have an independent commission to oversee this practice. I do not think it is an optimal process, so let us leave it to the comprehensive examination. Ultimately, we can deal with it in the context of total super policy.