BRISBANE, 26 AUGUST 2025
Thank you Songwoman Baringa for that beautiful welcome.
I want to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land we are meeting on today, the Turrbal and Jagera peoples of Me-an-jin, and I pay my respects to Elders past and present.
Welcome to the second ASFA Investment Summit. And welcome to Brisbane. With the river glinting beside us, the sunshine pouring in, and yes, even a city beach down the road, you could almost forget we’re still in winter.
This time last week I was in Canberra at the government’s Economic Reform Roundtable. It was a room full of business leaders, leading thinkers, and policymakers, all grappling with the challenge of uplifting productivity. I spoke particularly on the role of capital attraction and business investment to capital deepening.
What struck me most was the willingness of so many different sides of the table to come together for a genuine discussion about the roadblocks and how to work through them. Superannuation was woven through each one of these discussions.
Importantly, the conversation is already turning into action. The government has signalled willingness to explore a “tell us once” approach to reduce regulatory duplication and streamline reporting. That is exactly the kind of practical reform that frees up time and resources to focus on delivering for members. At the same time, ASIC has confirmed it will review stamp duty disclosure under RG 97. Getting that clarity right matters because it supports better disclosure, smarter decisions and, ultimately, more capital flowing to the places where it can have the most impact for member outcomes.
Following the roundtable, there has been a lot of interest in the Treasurer’s welcome announcement the government will be reviewing the performance test, let’s take a moment to consider what this means.
It is crucial that in a compulsory system we have measures of performance. The performance test has been an important part of the way super does business for half a decade now, it exists as a tool to help members make good decisions about where to put their money and to ensure that underperformance can be dealt with at a system level. When we have strong regulation and good transparency members will have confidence in our system.
The opportunity exists to modernise this test, to ensure that it is fit for purpose for future opportunities. Regulation should not be set and forget, as the people in this room well know, the performance test has given rise to unintended consequences, including benchmark hugging and encouraging investment strategies that are increasingly similar.
Modernising the test should give funds the confidence to pursue innovative, more differentiated strategies – including backing specialised managers, investment opportunities that arise but may be underweight in the benchmark or even appropriate early-stage opportunities in an array of sectors and asset classes.
This is not about pursuing particular agendas or meeting government investment priorities – it’s about meeting the priority of our members – the best, risk-adjusted returns.
We have a brilliant cohort of investors in the country, and it is right that they – you – are enabled to do your jobs to the best of your ability. Modernising the performance test will allow you to do that.
At times, what is in members’ best interests will align with broader policy goals, such as increasing the supply of housing, or catalysing clean energy at scale. High-return asset classes often deliver positive externalities – but those will be incidental outcomes, not the reason for reform in the first place.
With more than 4.1 trillion dollars now in the system, superannuation has matured to the point where it is front and centre in the nation’s most important economic debates and understood as essential to Australia’s ability to grow.
And that is exactly why we are here today. Super does two jobs at once. It delivers retirement outcomes for members and it fuels national prosperity. We call this the double dividend, the return on investment for members and the nation-building capital that keeps our economy moving.
ASFA has recently released new research on superannuation and productivity, and it shows just how important this role is. The superannuation system has helped lift Australia’s GDP and labour productivity by about 2 per cent, compared to what they would have been in the absence of compulsory super. For an average full-time worker today, that productivity boost equates to roughly $2,500 per year in additional pretax wages.
Our system is not simply a savings pool. Our sector is deploying about $40 billion in new financial capital into investments each quarter, which works out to around $500 million per day. It is a driver of deeper capital markets, of stronger governance, and of long-term investment in the sectors that lift productivity across the economy. Superannuation is part of the engine room of growth, helping Australia to innovate, to attract capital and to build resilience.
Yesterday’s tour of Brisbane Airport brought that double dividend to life. For those of you who were able to join us, you saw it in action. It is one thing to write about infrastructure investment in a research paper, it is another thing entirely to stand inside an asset and see how superannuation dollars are keeping planes moving, freight moving and people connected.
This Summit is designed to do something only ASFA can do. To take us from the big picture policy settings right through to the operational decisions that sit underneath them. From strategy to execution, from governance to implementation
Last year was the first time we ran this Summit, and it quickly showed there was real value in creating a space like this. It gave us a chance to step beyond the question of what to invest in and really explore how investment decisions are made and supported. It opened up conversations about the sophistication of investment functions, about processes, risks, data and governance. That experience has helped shape the way we have built this year’s program.
The theme for today is how investment teams are working together to make smarter, faster and more accountable decisions in a complex and rapidly shifting world. This is about uplifting the entire investment function of our sector. It is about recognising the depth and sophistication that has developed across funds, and the way investment teams continue to grow their capability.
So, what does that look like in practice? Well, after our first fireside chat, we’ll be looking at the global outlook for markets and macroeconomics and we’ll explore how investment committees make their decisions. We’ll dive into what really happened on Liberation Day and its impact on valuations under pressure, and in the afternoon, we’ll hear from the regulators about their views on transparency, risk and governance, before we finish with a look at the future of investing and the role of AI.
Across the parallel sessions, you’ll have the chance to choose from deep dives into liquidity management, exposure management, ESG reporting, hedge funds, impact investing and benchmarking. It is a packed program, so I encourage you to plan ahead. There is a bit of a walk between some sessions, so make sure you know where you want to be.
