The federal government’s Stronger Super bills look set to face delay as the workload of the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) on Corporations and Financial Services continues to mount, an industry association has said.
In a statement to its members, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (AFSA) said it anticipates the MySuper and Stronger Super bills may not proceed through Parliament until May 2012.
“Given the existing workload of the PJC and uncertainty around timings of subsequent MySuper/Stronger Super bills, we should anticipate that the passage of these bills through the Parliament may not proceed until May 2012,” ASFA said.
The industry body said the terms of reference have been established, submissions are due by 20 January 2012, and the committee will report back to Parliament on 21 March 2012.
“While there had been discussion that further Stronger Super bills would be presented to the House of Representatives before the end of the parliamentary year, this has not happened,” it said.
It said there were a number of issues that it would expect to be covered in a second bill, in particular capital gains tax (CGT) relief for mergers due to MySuper.
“The final passage of the bill will impact on implementation for super funds,” it said.
Earlier this month, Care Super chief executive Julie Lander called for CGT loss relief in the merger with Asset Super.
According to Lander, the merger might not go ahead if CGT relief was not granted.
In November, the PJC had received a reference from the House of Representatives to inquire into the MySuper Core Provisions Bill.
As well as reviewing the MySuper bill, the PJC has also been asked to review corporation amendements to the Future of Financial Advice bill.
Late last month, the PJC delayed the release of its report into the collapse of Trio Capital, extending the timeframe for its investigations until early next year.
