Opening remarks delivered at the ASFA Investment Summit in Sydney on 27 August 2026. These remarks have been lightly edited for publication.
I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the Traditional Custodians of this Country and pay my respects to Elders past and present.
Good morning again, everyone, and welcome to the ASFA Investment Summit.
We meet at an interesting moment for superannuation.
In recent weeks, we have again heard politicians questioning whether compulsory super has worked, describing it as a loss of liberty and proposing that retirement savings be opened up to meet more immediate cost of living pressures.
Serious debate about superannuation is welcome. It is one of the most important institutions in our economy and should be open to scrutiny.
But we must always begin with a clear understanding of its purpose.
Super exists to provide Australians with income in retirement.
It is their money, earned through their working lives and invested for their future. Trustees must invest it in members’ best financial interests and pursue the strongest possible risk adjusted returns.
That purpose should not be blurred, no matter how large the system becomes or how pressing the other challenges facing governments may be.
I was recently at a dinner with the Prime Minister, and we found ourselves talking about the scale and place of superannuation in Australia.
We discussed the phrase he used in public. Bewildering to me that it became controversial. Superannuation is a national asset. The super system is the national asset, it deserves its place as a national icon.
Super is a national icon not simply because it has grown to almost $4.5 trillion.
It is a national icon because of what it represents.
It represents the idea that nurses, teachers, carers, builders, hospitality workers and millions of other Australians should have access to professional investment expertise, long term compounding and a dignified retirement.
Those opportunities should not be reserved for the wealthiest people in the country.
Super takes millions of individual contributions and turns them into something no individual saver and no government balance sheet could create on its own: enduring national investment capacity.
ASFA’s research helps put that into perspective.
Australia has around $1 trillion more in national household savings than it would have without compulsory super.
Super now provides around 39% of all domestic business funding. For incorporated Australian businesses, super has overtaken banks as a source of funding.
That is an extraordinary democratisation of wealth and ownership.
Beyond the obvious help for individuals, super lifts the public spending burden for all taxpayers. Across the OECD nations the average cost of the public pensions is 9% of GPD. For Australia, this figure is 2.3%. Across the OECD nations the cost of the public pension is increasing as a percentage of GPD – only Australia’s cost is predicted to fall.
This relieves the burden for all taxpayers without diminishing the ambition of dignity in retirement for the many.
We are the world’s fourth largest pool of pension capital, the system is large because it has worked. And scale does not give us licence to move away from members, instead It magnifies our responsibility to them.
But scale also gives the people in this room an extraordinary capacity.
You do not simply allocate capital into markets. At your scale, you can help make and shape markets.
Your decisions can give new sectors depth, bring new investment structures into existence and turn opportunities that were once considered too difficult or too small into institutional asset classes.
The next great investment opportunity will not always arrive fully formed, neatly benchmarked and ready to drop into a portfolio.
As the 4th largest pool of capital, we need to build it.
Government has a role in that too.
If governments want super capital to support energy, health, infrastructure or emerging industries, they cannot simply point to the need and expect investment to follow.
They must help make those opportunities investable through policy certainty, credible pipelines, efficient approvals, appropriate scale and sensible risk allocation.
National ambition must pass through fiduciary duty.
When it does, we can achieve the double dividend: strong retirement outcomes for members and investment that strengthens Australia’s prosperity, productivity and resilience.
Yesterday’s asset tour to the UNSW Health Translation Hub – for those of you that were able to make it – brought that idea to life.
This was a display of an extraordinary asset bringing researchers, clinicians, educators and industry together to turn health research into better patient care. It is a powerful example of members’ retirement savings supporting health innovation and community benefit while remaining invested to deliver long term value.
Thank you to IFM Investors and the UNSW team for giving us that behind the scenes look.
That balance between investment performance and broader economic value is central to today’s Summit.
Now in its third year, the Investment Summit has become an important part of the ASFA calendar.
It creates a space that moves beyond what funds invest in and looks closely at how investment decisions are made, governed and implemented.
So, my challenge to everyone today is to lift our eyes beyond the next market movement, quarterly result or portfolio rebalance.
Ask what new markets need to exist over the coming decade.
Ask what capabilities, partnerships and structures will be required to build them.
Today’s program will take us from structural change, monetary policy and CIO perspectives through to liquidity, human rights, geopolitics and energy, portfolio strategy, sport as an asset class, private markets and the growing role of AI and data.
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