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ACTU slams government on planned super reforms

The trade union movement’s peak body has attacked new assistant treasurer Josh Frydenberg over planned superannuation reforms, accusing the government of putting the country’s big four banks ahead of fund members.

In an interview published in the Australian Financial Review on Monday, Mr Frydenberg foreshadowed radical changes to the superannuation industry, including proposals that would reduce the number of employer and union representatives on the boards of super funds and make it easier for Australian workers to select a bank-owned super fund in their workplace.

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“I don’t have a lot of faith in the current system,” Mr Frydenberg told the AFR. “It leaves retail funds and small industry funds at a disadvantage. I am determined to act on that.”

While Mr Frydenberg said the government’s plans to change the super system were not “a union-targeted campaign”, the Australian Council of Trade Unions said his comments gave the greenlight for a “big bank super grab”.

“It’s astounding that new Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s first public comment on superannuation is to attack the one area of the finance industry that actually puts the interests of millions of Australians ahead of the big banks,” said ACTU assistant secretary Tim Lyons.

“The big banks already have your mortgage, your credit card and your savings – now they want your superannuation and the Abbott Government seems determined to give it to them.”

Mr Frydenberg did not explain the precise policy measures that would help retail superannuation fund managers to compete against industry funds, but highlighted the reforms would aim to improve competition.

Mr Lyons said that industry funds had lower fees and had outperformed for-profit retail funds owned by the banks over “any time period comparison”.

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