Industry Super Australia (ISA) has urged the Government not to cave into bank-lobbying to dismantle the industry superannuation governance model.
ISA pointed to reports that suggested the Government was preparing a raft of bills that could dismantle the model, and give bank-owned super funds a “leave pass” on some of the new disclosure and transparency requirements.
ISA said the bill came despite ongoing revelations about poor governance, culture, and conduct within the banks and their wealth management arms.
ISA chief executive, David Whiteley, said: “Industry super funds are deliberately different and have been immune to the scandals that continue to cause significant consumer loss and hardship”.
"Member-first governance and culture is the reason industry super funds outperform bank-owned super funds,” he said.
Whiteley said the success of the trustee governance model was evident of the outperformance of industry super funds over bank funds.
"The government should focus on fixing unpaid super, addressing the gender gap and reducing multiple accounts,” he said.
Super funds had a “tremendous month” in November, according to new data.
Australia faces a decade of deficits, with the sum of deficits over the next four years expected to overshoot forecasts by $21.8 billion.
APRA has raised an alarm about gaps in how superannuation trustees are managing the risks associated with unlisted assets, after releasing the findings of its latest review.
Compared to how funds were allocated to March this year, industry super funds have slightly decreased their allocation to infrastructure in the six months to September – dropping from 11 per cent to 10.6 per cent, according to the latest APRA data.