The federal government's planned MySuper reforms were taking too long to pass into law because the minister responsible was focused more on helping unions than on aiding Australians who needed access to better retirement savings mechanisms, the opposition said yesterday.
Opposition assistant treasury spokesman Mathias Cormann said the Labor Party's Fair Work Australia selection of default superannuation funds was a closed-shop, anti-competitive arrangement.
"The current process is not transparent, not competitive and inappropriately favours union-dominated industry super funds and should be fixed as soon as possible," Cormann said in a statement.
"[Financial Services and Superannuation Minister] Bill Shorten has been far too slow to act and it is Australians in default super who are paying the price.
"Not only did Labor have to be shamed into making a commitment to sort this out before the last election, Bill Shorten took more than 18 months to get the process to fix this started."
In Cormann's view, Shorten, who is also Employment and Workplace Relations Minister, had been protecting the vested interests of the union movement, rather than standing up for Australians in default super.
Member for Bradfield Paul Fletcher told Parliament the bill was "defective".
Fletcher said the legislative framework's requirement that any MySuper default product be approved by Fair Work Australia was "part of the government's ongoing policy to bolster the union movement".
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives FOFA debate had yet to begin as InvestorDaily's deadline passed yesterday, with 21 MPs listed to speak on the bills.
The first and second tranches of the Corporations Amendment (Future of Financial Advice) Bill 2011 are to be debated as a single measure.
