Senator Bragg calls for superannuation overhaul
New South Wales Senator Andrew Bragg wants Australia to rethink superannuation to ensure the funds produce the best return for consumers. Today Senator Bragg and the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) launched a discussion paper calling for a default superannuation fund.
Since its introduction three decades ago, superannuation has done little to achieve what it was designed to – get Australians off the aged pension and reduce pressure on the federal budget.
It’s for this reason Senator Bragg is advocating for an overhaul of the existing system. At 10am Senator Bragg will be joined on Zoom by Simon Cowan, Senior Fellow and Research Director at the CIS.
Instead of the current default arrangement, Senator Bragg would like to see everyone who doesn’t opt out, placed into a national default fund managed by the Future Fund.
“The Future Fund provides high returns and lower costs for consumers, benefiting not only members of the fund but all Australians by creating a competitive benchmark for the entire sector,” said Bragg.
A long-time supporter of superannuation reform, Senator Bragg highlighted how the closed oligopoly of funds has led to a sluggish, inefficient and greedy industry in his 2020 short book ‘Bad Egg: How to Fix Super”. He has also written a number of papers and articles and served on various committees on the topic.
“The super funds have had it far too easy for far too long. It’s essentially been a gravy train. With these reforms competitors would have to do better to attract customers to opt out of the default and opt into their fund,” Bragg said.
The discussion paper can be found here: https://www.andrewbragg.com/super-guarantee-australia
