Exit fees will be banned under a Labor Government as part of its measures to simplify the superannuation system.
"Exit fees prohibit superannuation account consolidation. They are clearly anti-competitive and we will ban them in order to ensure super remains simple for the employee," Labor Shadow Minister for Retirement Policy Nick Sherry told his audience at the SPAA conference yesterday
Sherry outlined a number of strategies Labor would adopt in order to make superannuation simple.
An automatic consolidation measure will be implemented through the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to reduce the number of lost superannuation accounts.
"The total value of lost super account balances now total $9.7 billion with a total of 7.5 million lost accounts. This represents a massive structural inefficiency," Sherry said.
Small to a medium businesses will also have access to central clearing house to submit their superannuation contributions on behalf of their employees and choice of fund forms will also be eliminated. This will help reduce the red tape burden on the employer, he said.
Sherry echoed comments made by Shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan last week, calling for the product disclosure documents to be reduced to three pages and for a single regulatory authority to replace the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
Under a compulsory superannuation environment, Sherry said it was important that the Government had a duty of care to ensure Australians retirement savings were protected.
He called for greater regulatory involvement to ensure the prevention of fraud and theft especially in light of the Westpoint debacle.
As part of this approach, Labor will boost staffing levels for the ATO to ensure more resources are used to enforce legislation, he said.
