Industry Super Australia (ISA) has urged policymakers looking to tinker with Australia’s superannuation to keep the interests of members in mind as the next federal election approaches.
While the organisation acknowledged the impact of the recent Your Future, Your Super reforms, it warned that holes such as the gender savings gap continue to persist and warned that almost a quarter of the workforce are not receiving the superannuation benefits they should.
Ahead of the next federal commitment, the ISA called on Australia’s two major political parties to commit to mandating employers pay super with wages and amend the existing Commonwealth Parental Leave Pay scheme to include super.
The organisation also recommended a review of how and whether tax concessions help close the gender super gap and an expansion of APRA’s performance tests regimen that included 10 years of historical fund performance across all products.
ISA chief executive Bernie Dean said that any and all changes to the superannuation system must be driven by the financial interests of members, regardless of their age or income.
“We need to make sure young mums are paid super when they take time off to raise children, get workers’ super paid with their wages and protect them from ending up stuck in a dud fund,” he said.
Finally, the ISA advocated for a ban on workers being stapled to a fund that fails its annual performance test, the legislation of super’s objective, a commitment to raising the super guarantee to 12 per cent by 2025 and the ruling out of early release and opt out amendments to the superannuation system.
Mr Dean said that age wasn’t a factor when it came to the angst of those affected by attempts to change or reform aspects of the modern superannuation sector.
“Workers and retirees just hate it when politicians go messing with super.”
“Sticking with the foundations, like the plan to increase the super guarantee to 12 per cent and preserving super for retirement will go a long way to give people the certainty they crave,” he said.
