The SMSF Association has stressed the silo mentality in public policy formulation must end as isolated policy settings have predictably impacted on other policy areas, causing negative outcomes for the industry.
Association chairman Andrew Gale said the body’s policy agenda was broad and included both short-term imperatives, particularly the outstanding issues with the 2016 federal budget and the limited recourse borrowing arrangement issues, and longer-term issues.
“For the longer term, we need to create a greater awareness with government, the opposition, the public sector and regulators of the interrelationships between different policy areas, such as tax, social security, superannuation and retirement savings,” Gale said during his address at the SMSF Association Technical Day in Sydney last week.
“And this is most evident in the post-retirement phase – changes in one policy setting invariably impact on another, often having perverse outcomes.
“Breaking down this silo mentality in public policy formulation and encouraging formulation of public policy from a broader perspective is, we believe, a worthy and essential goal for the association.”
He said the 2016 federal budget with its overhaul of superannuation was a pertinent reminder about how quickly public policy settings could change.
“Although this year’s budget was, thankfully, superannuation-light, all of us in this room appreciate how quickly this can change,” he said.
“We have always been quietly effective in influencing specific government policies.”
