Media Release

ASFA Statement on Financial System Inquiry

ASFA Statement: 21 November 2013

ASFA Statement on Financial System Inquiry

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) welcomes the release of draft Terms of Reference for the Financial System Inquiry.

“The Financial System Inquiry will provide the opportunity for the superannuation industry to demonstrate how superannuation capital contributes to the Australian economy,” said ASFA CEO Pauline Vamos.

ASFA will provide an in-depth, evidence-based submission to the Financial Systems Inquiry. ASFA has a significant research resource base to draw from and will be working with experts from across the superannuation industry to contribute to the Inquiry.

Over the last few years, ASFA has researched the links between Australia’s growing pool of superannuation capital and the Australian economy.

Research commissioned by ASFA has concluded that:

  • superannuation capital already helps to finance Australia’s long-term economic growth
  • superannuation capital seeks profitable investments. If superannuation funds are asked to help meet economic objectives, it should not be in a manner detrimental to returns on fund members’ retirement savings
  • superannuation has the flexibility to meet the future expectations of retirees
  • the superannuation system should not compromise the stability of the financial system, even as the pool of funds grow
  • the evidence indicates that superannuation funds actually have strengthened the financial system, providing substantial financing both directly to businesses and indirectly through other financial institutions
  • Australia weathered the GFC comparatively well, in part due to the stabilising role played by superannuation fund investments.

Background

For further information, please contact:

Lisa Chikarovski, Media Manager, 0451 949 300.

About ASFA

Daniel Mulino MP

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

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Born in Brindisi, Italy, Daniel was a young child when he moved with his family to Australia. He grew up in Canberra and completed his first degrees – arts and law – at the ANU. He then completed a Master of Economics (University of Sydney) and a PhD in economics from Yale.

He lectured at Monash University, was an economic adviser in the Gillard government and was a Victorian MP from 2014 to 2018. As Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer of Victoria, Daniel helped deliver major infrastructure projects and developed innovative financing structures for community projects.

In 2018 he was preselected for the new federal seat of Fraser and became its first MP at the 2019 election, re-elected in 2022 and 2025. From 2022 to 2025, Daniel was chair of the House of Representatives’ Standing Economics Committee in which he chaired inquiries; economic dynamism, competition and business formation and insurers’ responses to 2022 major floods claims.

In 2025, he became the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.

In August 2022, Daniel published ‘Safety Net: The Future of Welfare in Australia’, which aims to explore the ways in which an insurance approach can improve the effectiveness of government service delivery.