The Cooper review is now in full swing, with more than 100 submissions received by the review panel under phase one of the examination of Australia's superannuation system.
Phase one, which covers governance, garnered submissions from organisations including the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), Industry Super Network, Cbus, UniSuper, Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA), Watson Wyatt and New South Wales Treasury.
ASFA in its submission argued the current governance model had been effective.
"The key point is that no Australian Prudential Regulation Authority-regulated superannuation fund has failed during the most severe financial crisis in 80 years. Even though we saw withdrawals from some fund investment options restricted because of liquidity concerns, this was due to the freezing of underlying managed investment schemes," ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos said.
"This is in contrast to the situation overseas where many pension funds are in severe financial stress."
AIST also called on the Cooper review not to tamper with the trustee model.
"There is compelling evidence that representative trustee directors have performed well in managing member interests and ensuring that Australia's superannuation system has contributed significantly to dealing with the nation's retirement and economic challenges," AIST said in a statement.
However, not all submissions were as supportive of the trustee system.
The ICAA called for an increase in the overall level of trustee knowledge.
"Some trustees simply do not have an adequate understanding of their roles and responsibilities as trustees or the education in superannuation law and procedures to add the best value to a trustee board," ICAA head of superannuation Liz Westover said.
Westover also said equal employee and employer representation on trustee boards was no longer as relevant, with employer funds decreasing in number and industry funds becoming public offer funds.
"The size of the superannuation industry now dictates the need to ensure that the best qualified people are on the boards looking after Australian retirement savings," she said.
Despite agreeing that the trustee system has achieved its role of safeguarding Australians' superannuation savings, ASFA and AIST identified some key areas for improvement.
Among the 10 points ASFA asked the review to consider were instituting minimum competence standards for trustees and a policy on trustee composition, selection, removal, tenure and succession planning.
AIST recommended mandatory training for all new trustee directors as part of their induction, a requirement for trustee directors to renominate every three years, no fixed terms and 30 hours of continual professional development as best practice.
Last week, the review panel called for submissions in response to the release of its "Phase Two: Operation and Efficiency Issues Paper".
"This paper raises some hard, practical questions for the super industry, including: do super funds have the right tools to measure their overall efficiency? The average Australian worker has three super accounts when they only need one - how is the industry going to fix this? Do we need fewer, but much bigger, super funds?" review chair Jeremy Cooper said.
The closing date for submissions is 14 December.
