The Australian’s Adam Creighton has asked the question, noting that Australia’s superannuation system is now valued at $2.8 trillion, and yet parliament has failed to agree on what it is for. The current federal government tried a few years ago to enact a bill that would define the purpose of superannuation, but it was never passed.
Creighton argues that the main aim of superannuation should be to help people to provide for themselves in retirement, but cynics suggest that the ‘real’ beneficiaries include fund managers, superannuation and financial planning associations, the union movement and the Labor party. It is little wonder, then, that all these groups want the superannuation guarantee to be increased to 12% to line their own pockets:
A primary purpose of superannuation is to provide highly paid jobs to tens of thousands of fund managers, union officials, directors, financial advisers, conference organisers, policy advisers and industry associations (apologies to any group I’ve missed).
