A financial services executive has called for the superannuation guarantee (SG) to be doubled to 18 per cent or the system will remain inadequate.
Chief executive officer of Australian Unity Investments, David Bryant, told a media briefing yesterday that the gradual increase of SG to 12 per cent would fail to achieve adequacy in retirement for Australians.
"The reality is that that number needs to be 18 per cent for two reasons," Bryant said.
"At effectively the 20-year anniversary of the implementation of compulsory superannuation, what we have to try and do is find an opportunity to actually do again what we already did — [this time] make 9 per cent into 18 per cent," he added.
"It was one of those moments of rare enlightenment and cooperation between the unions, business, and the government and we need that degree of collaboration again."
The only sector able to resolve the capital investment issues facing Australia in healthcare, ageing, provision of services and adequacy in retirement is the superannuation system, Bryant said.
"And the superannuation system is inadequate — as proud as we want to feel about what we've managed to achieve over the last 20 years, it is grossly inadequate for what it needs to do, let alone for what it will need to do over the next 12 years and beyond," he said.
In its pre-election policy document, the FSC highlighted 15 priority reforms, with superannuation featuring prominently, urging both major parties to avoid changing super taxes without a comprehensive tax review.
The Grattan Institute has labelled the Australian super system as “too complicated” and has proposed a three-pronged reform strategy to simplify superannuation in retirement.
Super funds delivered a strong 2024 result, with the median growth fund returning 11.4 per cent, driven by strong international sharemarket performance, new data has shown.
Australian Ethical has seen FUM growth of 27 per cent in the financial year to date.