Late 2007 was a good time for Senator Nick Sherry. In September, his beloved AFL team, the Geelong Cats, took out the premiership. And in November, Labor stormed into Government.

"Let's just say it was a particularly good time for me," Sherry says.

As Superannuation and Corporate Law Minister, Sherry has taken up the mantle in interesting times. Global and local markets have plummeted, fuel prices continue to rise and so do interest rates.

While superannuation adequacy remains one of the important issues for the superannuation industry, for many Australians earning enough to survive is the only thing on their mind.

Investment and Financial Services Association chief executive Richard Gilbert believes Sherry has managed to maintain his cool.

"The senator has received a baptism of fire since coming into government. We are pleased, however, that the Government has not responded to market events through a knee-jerk reaction," Gilbert says.

While the times are tumultuous, it is fair to say Sherry has hit the ground running.

A move to simplify product disclosure statements (PDS), a strategy to find lost superannuation accounts and the establishment of a superannuation advisory body are part of a raft of initiatives his office has announced since February.

And for the first time, a federal government has dedicated a ministerial portfolio to superannuation.

"With superannuation now representing $1.2 trillion, the industry is economically and socially substantial in its own right. Its compulsory nature has made it an important social policy. For these reasons [Prime Minister] Kevin [Rudd] believed it deserved a status of its own," Sherry says.

The bulk of Sherry's 18-year political life has been linked to superannuation. For eight years he was the opposition spokesman on superannuation.

He is also one of the few Rudd ministers who has previous experience of being in government. 

During the Hawke and Keating years, he chaired a senate committee on superannuation. He later became deputy chair of the senate select committee on superannuation and financial services.

He also has a working knowledge of the sector. Indeed, he helped found two industry superannuation funds, including Hostplus and Club-Plus (Tasmanian) Superannuation Fund. It was only natural Sherry took on the dedicated portfolio.

With the role of ASIC and financial disclosure in superannuation, corporate law was tagged onto Sherry's portfolio.

At industry lunches this year, Sherry commended the Howard Government's simple super measures, which were implemented in its last budget.

Simplicity is something Sherry hopes to replicate in the current lengthy PDSs.

Indeed, when Sherry announced in March a plan to reform the lengthy documents, the move was immediately embraced by industry.

"Unscrambling the disclosure omelette will not be without its difficulties, but we believe that a balance can be struck between document length, consumer protection and red tape reduction for industry," Gilbert said at the time.

Industry pundits said such complexity only frustrated people and members.

"The current disclosure statements have been a source of frustration for superannuation. No member wants to wade through these long documents in detail," Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) chief executive Fiona Reynolds said in March. For Sherry it is still early days to reveal how prescriptive the PDSs will be, but he remains adamant they will be simple.

"We have just begun working on the PDSs. The bottom line is that they need to be consumer tested. The information that is provided to consumers must be simple and readable. The draft disclosure documents are going to be crossing my desk. I will be looking at them and intend to closely follow its progress," he says.

He believes central to the simplicity of advice documents is cost-effective advice, and perhaps a rethink on fee-for-service over commissions.

"One of the arguments that support commissions is that the cost of advice is spread over time. Our immediate focus is to reduce the cost of providing advice and dramatically simplify this information," he says.

"Once we have completed that process, then we will look at the governance issues and this will include the future of fee structures."

Governance is already in Sherry's sights in terms of the rise and growth of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF).

"Based on the evidence supplied to me, there are a significant minority of trustees that don't understand the SIS Act [Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act] and the investment strategy of their fund to make informed decisions," he says.

His focus on corporate governance will not just be restricted to SMSFs. In time, the senator will also look at the governance structures behind other superannuation funds.

"Governance is important to a compulsory superannuation system. I am concerned about some governance practices in some of the sectors, including the corporate, retail and public sectors," he says.

While he will act upon simplifying the system, adequacy of superannuation remains more elusive.

Industry groups and other interested parties, including former Labor prime minster and chief architect of the superannuation system Paul Keating, have consistently called for the superannuation guarantee (SG) levy to increase from its current 9 per cent rate.                         

At an SMSF conference in early 2007, Sherry, then in opposition, announced the ALP would not increase the SG rate. Keating's response to  Investor Weekly was that the lack of action "was a failure of imagination".

Even Labor's traditional support base, Australia's union movement, has called for the Government to divert some of its promised tax cuts into superannuation.

"I want our new federal government to think again before they squander $31 billion dollars of windfall that will not come again. If half of that $31 billion went into superannuation funds, there would be a future for many Australians," Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes told an audience at an AIST lunch in March. For Sherry, however, the Government remains committed to its election promises.

"Kevin Rudd is tough on many things and one thing is that we implement our election commitments," he says.

"We have given our election commitment that we won't be increasing the 9 per cent SG rate that is currently being paid by the employer."

Rudd and his Government also remain firm that the tax cuts will be delivered.

Sherry is hesitant about the possibility of introducing soft compulsion. Concerns about such an initiative were first raised during visits to the United Kingdom.

"I do have concerns about soft compulsion in a practical sense. The compulsory nature of our superannuation industry makes our system simple. Based on examining the issues in the UK, soft compulsion brings with it additional layers of complexity, including the possibility of more regulation, supervision, and the need for more information and advice," he says.

"We have to find ways to deliver higher contributions without the need to introduce new legislation into the system."

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has been a long-term champion of soft compulsion.

For ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos the introduction of soft compulsion does not need to be complex if the fundamentals are in place.

"Soft compulsion can be kept simple if we have all the factors in place. More people are financially literate and by giving them access to advice and creating better disclosure, soft compulsion can be simple to implement," Vamos says.

Sherry has foreshadowed further debate on the issue of adequacy.

"There are many industry studies that indicate that people fall short of an adequate retirement. We want to have a fully informed debate where we can determine the additional savings initiatives that help us close the gap on adequacy. This is a debate for the medium term," he says.

After 11 years in opposition, Sherry is happy to be in the hot seat.

He is determined to take a consultative approach to developing policy in the industry. Although Sherry will consult with the government's working group, it does not preclude him "from consulting with other individuals".

"I have always done that and I always will,' he says.

"The biggest change from moving from opposition and into government is making and executing the decisions that you know will impact directly on millions of Australians.

"The workload is significantly greater but I enjoy and have a passion for superannuation policy."

The senator says this passion came from a decision made by the Labor government back in the 1990s when it introduced compulsory superannuation.

"Twenty years ago the then Labor government added retirement income policy in Australia. To make superannuation compulsory for all Australians, including the lower and middle-income earners, was a fairness issue and I support that philosophically," he says.