Treasurer gives super groups seats at the roundtable
The superannuation sector in the form of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) and AustralianSuper have gained a “session specific” invitation to the Government’s Economic Reform Roundtable.
Other financial services players are going to have to rely on the quality of their written submissions to have an input to the process.
The specific invitations issued by the Treasury reflect the Government’s roundtable focus on economic investment but, interestingly, the Treasury invitation went to ASFA rather than the industry funds-focused Super Members Council (SMC).
The major accounting groups have made public their submissions to the roundtable, while financial advice groups have yet to do so.
ASFA chief executive, Mary Delahunty and AustralianSuper chief executive, Paul Schroder have gained the specific invitations under the head of “Capital attraction and business investment” alongside Macquarie Group chief executive, Shemara Wikramanayake and Investor Group on Climate Change chief executive, Rebecca Mikula-Wright.
The agenda for the roundtable shows that capital attraction and business investment will be dealt with on day one.
The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers announced the Government had issued more invitations to the roundtable “this time for specific sessions on the agenda”.
“These invitees bring deep expertise in their respective fields. They include policy experts, economists, heads of key government agencies and leaders across business, institutional investors and the broader community,” he said.
“We’re drawing on the experience and leadership of people who are well placed to engage with the challenges and opportunities across each of the Roundtable’s sessions.”
“Their insights will help sharpen the focus of our discussions and contribute meaningfully to the work ahead.
“While not every group or organisation can be represented in person, our public submission process has seen almost 900 organisations and individuals have their say.”
Treasury already met with SMC & ISFs at the MCG sporting box, nicely paid for by Industry Super Fund members for the ISF elite to get on the cans together
Didn’t ASFA’s policy team submit for significant changes to RG97 that would allow a super fund trustee not to have to disclose costs (such as stamp duty) on residential property investments to members?
If so, why would it be a good idea to reduce transparency for members in disclosing the real cost of owning an asset?
I agree with Andrew Bragg, if big super gets into residential property investment on massive scale, this will change the fabric of Australian society in a way that I don’t think is positive at all.
Imagine the new conflicts of interest this arguably generates. Yuck.