The news follows the FSC’s successful argument in the Federal Court on Friday that the Fair Work Commission’s expert superannuation panel is invalid under the Fair Work Act.
The court found that Fair Work Commission president Justice Iain Ross’s decision to appoint himself to the panel, following the removal of Australian Ethical non-executive chair Steven Gibbs and MTAA director Vicki Allen due to ‘potential conflicts’, was invalid.
Justice Ross acknowledged the court’s finding in a terse statement yesterday, noting that as a consequence “the expert panel as currently purportedly reconstituted will not deal further with [the four-yearly review of the selection of default funds in modern awards]”.
Minister for employment senator Eric Abetz, who was urged by Justice Ross to “fill [the vacancy created by the removal of Mr Gibbs and Ms Allen] quickly” on 28 May, said in a statement on Friday that the expert panel process “cannot proceed in its current form”.
“This outcome has arisen as a direct consequence of Bill Shorten’s ham-fisted appointment of inappropriate expert members prior to the last election,” said Mr Abetz.
The court decision confirms the current situation “would not have occurred if Bill Shorten had not sought to stack the expert panel immediately prior to the election”, he added.
“The government will now carefully consider the court’s decision and work towards a solution to clean up Labor’s mess,” he said.
In a statement yesterday, resource industry group AMMA executive director for policy and public affairs Scott Barklamb said the process “has degenerated into a complete mess”.
“Australia’s retail superannuation funds and industry superannuation funds are at war over the billions in contributions from working Australians who do not choose where their superannuation should be directed,” said Mr Barklamb.
The review of which superannuation funds are named in industrial awards has become “farcical”, with two of the three superannuation experts appointed by Labor being disqualified or resigning due to conflicts of interest, he said.
“It has also placed the president of the Fair Work Commission in a very difficult position and led to his disqualification from heading the review by the Federal Court,” said Mr Barklamb.
“The Abbott government should fix the mess it has been bequeathed by removing superannuation from the industrial awards system altogether,” he said.
“There is simply no longer any need for awards to mandate the funds into which employee contributions should be made,” he added.
