ACTU smacks distracted APRA over Shield, First Guardian
Australia’s peak trade union body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, has launched an attack on the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) accusing the regulator of prioritising an operating surplus over appropriate oversight superannuation trustees.
In doing so, the ACTU has called on APRA to “fix its priorities and crack down on predatory platform providers that destroyed workers’ life savings”.
“APRA is more than ten times more interested in a fund’s marketing and sponsorship, than it is in preventing $1 billion being robbed from Australian workers’ life savings by dodgy providers, according to its own data,” ACTU assistant secretary, Joseph Mitchell said.
The ACTU statement also referenced the collapse of Shield and First Guardian claiming: “these dodgy investment products were provided to workers by superannuation trustees, such as Diversa Trustees, known to APRA to have insufficient governance arrangements”.
“The failure of providers to meet their promises is the definition of prudential risk – something APRA ignored,” the union group said.
“Instead of preventing poorly governed trustees from offering poorly overseen products, APRA was seemingly saving its resources to deliver an operational surplus and using the rest to issue statutory notices about other funds’ sponsorship arrangements. This cost members their life savings,” the ACTU claimed
“Between 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2025, APRA directed more than ten times the resources to expenditure, such as sponsorships, as it did to investigating superannuation platforms and onboarding, issuing 124 statutory notices relating to trustee expenditure and only 10 information requests relating to onboarding and monitoring platforms.
“This is despite the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) prohibiting investment into Shield in February 2024 and First Guardian’s responsible entity prohibiting investment in May 2024.
“APRA seemingly did not ask questions about the unprecedented inflow of millions of dollars into Shield and First Guardian between 2021-2024 during which Diversa funds in First Guardian increased by 1,431% from $17.7 million to $271 million and Shield grew from $0 to $501 million through Equity Trustees and Macquarie.
“To fulfill its mandate and identify risks proactively, APRA must look at the red flags in front of it. Instead, APRA was focusing more than ten times the resources on sponsorships, while predatory providers siphoned $1 billion out of Australians’ savings.”
Couldn’t care what the ACTU think. Just another diversion. They should be quiet.
Ask yourself, if we started super again today from scratch, would we hardbake Unions into it again?
I’d say no and for many reasons.
Does this mean APRA and ASIC staff are no longer welcome at the union fund super boxes at the NRL and AFL?
As the ACTU put together this statement whilst on the food and piss in the ISF members paid for MCG corporate box.
$1 billion loss is not good at all and S & FG is both a great MIS failure and fraud allowed to perpetuate via both the very dopey ASIC and APRA, again asleep at the wheel.
But given the at least $15 BILLION the CFMEU have funnelled out of the big build for their Union bosses / Bikie mates.
It makes sense the APRA is looking at so call ISF marketing & sponsorship.
What we really await are the Regulatory Capture Corrupted APRA & ASIC to properly investigate ISFs related party “business” transactions that are making the Union & Bikie bosses obscenely wealthy.
I think the big build $15 BILLION Union & Bikie bosses grafting & corruption will be a drop in the ocean. It would be no surprise to find that the Union & Bikie bosses have syphoned over a $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Trillion from the Super system.
The modern day Mafia licking their lips to continue feasting at the Super trough.
And yes all under plain sight of a useless APRA & ASIC.
The ACTU with a classic, “hey look over there” whilst they steal $$$$ a Trillion.
One must ask if the revelations of the union graft in the Victorian Big Build are true, then what is going on in union super?
Unions branding looking pretty shoddy and tarnished in my opinion – these are massive revelations (again if true).
This surely should prompt a Royal Commission to investigate unions to ensure integrity not just on public works but also Australian private investments in super.
Chances are it won’t under this Government though….
After the revelations this week about the $15b stolen by corrupt unions in Vic, the ACTU should be careful