Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

First of all, I worked for five years in the industry superannuation fund area. I think that should be placed on the table; I do not want someone saying, ‘Well, you worked for an industry super fund before so you will have a bias.’ I make it quite clear that I have for five years worked for an industry super fund. The issue here, I suppose, is choice, and let me keep on going here, because I know this area reasonably well and understand that superannuation choice is a good thing. We also know that there is not a lot of switching going on. You can get the figures, but it is not a high percentage.

Unfortunately, it is only as you start to lose your hair that you show a lot more interest in your superannuation; when you are younger, you do not really pay enough attention to it. I will not go to the pollies’ super. When someone joins a company or starts a new job, if you are under a certain age—probably not going bald—you do not pay a lot of attention to your super. A lot of paperwork is usually shoved at you and you know which ones are really important—your tax file number and those things—and have be filled in, but one of the other ones, on super, says, ‘Well, look, if you don’t make a choice then this will be the default fund.’ So the default fund is very important. There are a lot of people in a superannuation fund just because of the default arrangement from the workplace that they first started at. This is how people get two or three funds; they have two or three jobs over a period of time and end up with two or three funds. Everybody says that you should roll them in together, and that is probably highly desirable, but you do not get around to it. In fact, you could streamline it even more to make it really easy. Frankly, when you have made the decision to change funds, it is just too bloomin’ hard. Again, I will not go there, but the default superannuation fund is a very important issue.

Now, the Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law has said that the current arrangements with the Industrial Relations Commission are not optimal; I understand that. I am not having a go at you here, Minister; I am just saying that it really is not optimal, because, when you think about it, what is the process of the choice there? They obviously have some criteria. I do not know what exactly they are, and I am not sure whether you can table the criteria they are currently using in detail and how often that is reviewed. Normally, if you select a superannuation fund, there is a review process. The Industrial Relations Commission is an umpire, but some people feel a bit shut out of that process. Maybe the minister could answer this question: out of the awards, what percentage have not chosen an industry super fund as the default fund?