The federal government has confirmed it will be looking to use some of the $3.4 trillion pool of savings held in superannuation accounts to fund investment opportunities beyond Australian borders.
During a speech to the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones said domestic areas in need of funding are not the only ones where the country’s accumulated retirement savings can play a significant role.
“We’ve had discussions and my colleague, [Treasurer] Jim Chalmers, led some discussions last week and the week before around the super charging the economy policy announcements and some areas we’d like to partner with industry in the areas of housing, in the areas of infrastructure. Many of you are already active in this space and we’re keen to explore ways that we can partner and take this to a new level,” Jones acknowledged.
“We’ve also led delegations up to Indonesia to look at new investment opportunities within our region because we know that as funds grow, that increasingly investment opportunities are going to have to be sought abroad and we should be looking in our near region for that, aligning the best interests of your members with the national interests of Australia in ensuring we are deepening our economic ties within the region.”
He also reiterated the government is reviewing the Your Future, Your Super laws, which will involve the release of a consultation paper this week and the commencement of a formal consultation process with industry stakeholders.
Among the elements of the legislation to be examined are the stapling provisions, he said.
“We understood, as the original legislation moved through the parliament, that there were going to be some consequences for the way the former government set stapling up and we want to have a look at it. We want to ensure that any of the unintended consequences of that are dealt with,” he noted.
“We also want to have a look at how it’s operating at the workplace level and we’ll be inviting feedback from stakeholders on those issues.
“I’m particularly interested in hearing submissions from stakeholders around the impact of stapling on insurance and group insurance and how that impacts on a fund member as they move from one industry to another industry but are stapled to the original funds.”
Last month, Chalmers said the government will make no changes to the underlying structure of the superannuation framework.
