‘Clear, simple’ objective for super system, crucial

The CEO of the Financial Services Council has called for the objective of superannuation to be enshrined in law.

In a video posted to his personal LinkedIn page, Blake Briggs said the objective needs to be simple with a primary focus on the goal of providing a comfortable standard of living in retirement for Australians, that supplements or substitutes the age pension.

“The superannuation industry agrees that one of the first priorities of the new government should be legislating a clear and simple objective for the superannuation system,” Mr Briggs said.

“A legislated objective will ensure that subsequent reforms build on the strengths of the system, and protect consumers superannuation savings from the constant tinkering and the moving of the goalposts that we’ve seen over the last decade.”

Mr Briggs stressed that superannuation should have a “singular focus on the needs of consumers, not whims of politicians or the industry itself”.

“An objective will help make this clear,” he said.

Mr Briggs believes that once the purpose of the system is enshrined, other reforms will naturally flow.

In August, Treasurer Jim Chalmers proposed several sweeping reforms that could shake up the $3.4 trillion superannuation sector.

Part of this shake-up, he said, is ensuring a primary objective of the superannuation system is legislated.

Labor previously voiced its intention to cement super’s purpose in law. Just last year, the then opposition financial services and superannuation spokesman, Stephen Jones, said, “The purpose of super is to provide a secure dignified retirement — not to fix every other area of this government’s policy neglect.”

Mr Chalmers assured in August that Labor would not mess with the fundamentals of the superannuation system, but would instead “dispassionately” diagnose the challenges, and work towards addressing them.