The Federal Opposition has ridiculed the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation Bill Shorten for announcing a “Charter Group” to oversee a “Charter of Superannuation Adequacy and Sustainability”.
Just minutes after Shorten had announced the formation of the group, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann dismissed it as a waste of time.
He claimed the minister had “established a Committee to advise him on the establishment of another committee to stop future governments from doing the bad things Labor has done to superannuation taxation over the past five years”.
Addressing the Queensland Media Club, Shorten said the charter group would be made up of former Federal Court judge, Alan Goldberg, the deputy chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), Ross Jones, former Cooper Review chairman, Jeremy Cooper, former AustralianSuper chair, Elana Rubin and former MLC planning boss, Steve Tucker.
The minister said the Charter Group would be seeking input on the establishment of a Council of Superannuation Custodians which would, in turn, “act as an impartial, expert superannuation body which protects the integrity of the scheme and ensure the policy settings are consistent with the core objects, values and principles.
Jim Chalmers has defended changes to the Future Fund’s mandate, referring to himself as a “big supporter” of the sovereign wealth fund, amid fierce opposition from the Coalition, which has pledged to reverse any changes if it wins next year’s election.
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Chant West analysis suggests super could be well placed to deliver a double-digit result by the end of the calendar year.
Specific valuation decisions made by the $88 billion fund at the beginning of the pandemic were “not adequate for the deteriorating market conditions”, according to the prudential regulator.