The federal government is likely to release the Retirement Income Review after it hands down the budget in October and the report will look past the “mythologies” surrounding superannuation, according to the minister with oversight of the sector.
Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and Financial Technology Jane Hume said the review, which was handed to the government in July, was hundreds of pages in length and was currently in the hands of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
“This was a three-person review in conjunction with Treasury, which has created a significant document and it is about 650 pages long and is very comprehensive,” Hume said during an address at the recent Tax Institute 2020 National Superannuation Online Conference.
“It is sitting with the Treasurer at present, who has had a fair bit on his plate in the last few months. He will release that document when he is ready and he has the budget to deliver first.
“It is a document without recommendations and will form a fact base from which policymakers inside and outside government will be able to leverage positions.
“There are a lot of mythologies surrounding super and the retirement income system and this digs deeper,” she added, but did not go into the specifics of what areas the review had addressed.
She noted the review did not address superannuation as a stand-alone issue, but examined the retirement income system as a whole, including voluntary savings outside super and the government-funded age pension.
Answering questions from attendees, she said this approach to retirement income should replace any discussion around a formalised purpose of superannuation as suggested by the Financial Services Inquiry (FSI).
“FSI chair David Murray said the purpose of superannuation should be to substitute or supplement the age pension, and that seems to make logical sense, but does it?” she said.
“The FSI only looked at superannuation as a single silo and, as I said earlier, the retirement income system is made up of three pillars and would it not be better to think about the objective of the retirement income system before thinking about the objective of one pillar within it?
“Is the objective of the retirement income system to deliver an adequate standard of living in retirement in an equitable and sustainable way? That would be a better place to start than to legislate for the purpose of superannuation.”
