Combet appointment underscores Labor’s super linkages

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

15 June 2023

ANALYSIS

Just a day after the Government’s initial response to the Quality of Advice Review which has presaged a greater role for superannuation funds in delivering financial advice, the Government has appointed Industry Super Australia chair, Greg Combet, to head its new Net Zero Economy Agency.

As a reflection of the enduring linkages between the trade union movement, industry superannuation funds and the Australian Labor Party, Combet’s appointment to the new agency is instructive.

It is also a reflection of the fact that Combet is politically highly-credentialed for the Net Zero Economy Agency role.

Combet is not only a former senior minister in the Rudd and Gillard Labor Governments but also a former secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and, most recently chair of ISA and the industry funds-backed IFM Investors.

Combet announced his own resignation from the IFM Investors board yesterday not long after Industry Super Australia announcing his resignation would become effective from 30 June, meaning he had served six years on the board of the industry funds lobby group.

The ISA announcement described Combet as a “strong advocate for members” who had led the ISA board “during a time of considerable change in the superannuation sector including the Royal Commission, Covid-19 pandemic and new legislative and regulatory requirements.

ISA chief executive, Bernie Dean said it was hard to overstate the impact Combet had had and that he left a super system and the nation “fairer, wealthier, and better prepared for the future”.

Announcing his own retirement from the IFM Board, Combet referenced the “importance of industry funds to the retirement security of millions of people and to the future economic resilience of Australia”.