AustralianSuper paid $26.6m to ISA over five years
Australia’s largest industry superannuation fund, AustralianSuper, has revealed it spends over $7.5 million on memberships of industry associations and bodies a year.
In particular, AustralianSuper revealed that in 2023/24 it spent over $5.2 million on the business behind the so-called “compare the pair” advertising campaign – Industry Super Australia Pty Ltd.
Its next biggest expenditure was nearly $1.6 million for its membership of the Super Members Council (SMC) covering the nine months between 1 October, 2023 and 30 June, last year.
Answering questions on notice from NSW Liberal Senator, Andrew Bragg AustralianSuper said that it believed the Senator was probing “key superannuation industry organisations/associations that AustralianSuper is a part of (i.e. organisations with whom AustralianSuper has an industry strategic partnership and not, for example, memberships held with organisations such as the Australian Securitisation Forum or Diversity Council Australia)”.
It then outlined what it described as “strategic partnerships with four key organisations/associations – the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, Industry Super Australia, Super Members Council and the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia.
Bragg’s question also asked what legal advice, if any, AustralianSuper had received “that justifies your position within their organisations” under Best Financial Interests Standards.
AustralianSuper responded that any legal advice received would be protected by legal professional privilege and AustralianSuper should not be expected to waive that privilege.
Answering a specific question from Bragg on supporting the “compare the pair’ advertising campaign, AustralianSuper acknowledged its involvement.
It revealed that payments to ISA over the past five had amounted to over $26.6 million.
“AustralianSuper makes payments to ISA for delivery of marketing services that include the Compare the Pair marketing campaign,” the fund said. “Payments to ISA are disclosed in AustralianSuper’s Fund Annual Financial Reports available in the Financial Statements section of the AustralianSuper website. Payments made by AustralianSuper to ISA for the past 5 years were:
I am disgusted by the misleading and biased claims of the “Compare the Pair” campaign.
You cannot compare without taking the range of investment strategies which are available.
To claim that all industry funds outperform all retail funds is absolute nonsense.
Furthermore, a well-managed SMSF typically outperforms both industry and retail funds.
And the net result of this disclosure, will be a big fat zero, no one cares, Aus Super, ISA are all a protected species