Media Release

Members can be confident about the future of their super

Published 22 October, 2012

Published 22 October, 2012

22 October 2012

Members can be confident about the future of their super

Australia’s peak superannuation body says it’s great news for fund members that the Government in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) released today has not tinkered with the basic tax structure of the superannuation system. This means that members of superannuation funds are able to continue to plan for their retirement with confidence.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) recognises the Government’s budget position but stressed that the superannuation system is more than pulling its weight in terms of contributing to bringing the budget back to surplus.

“The Government in successive budgets and statements since 2009-10 have already achieved $7.5 billion in budget savings from superannuation,” said ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos. “Further changes to the taxation of superannuation or tightening of contribution caps are neither necessary or desirable. It is good that the MYEFO process accepts this”.

Ms Vamos also said that one of the most significant changes that members of superannuation funds should be aware of is changes to the arrangements applying to unclaimed monies and lost members. This has the potential to bring over $500 million into consolidated revenue. The most important action that members of funds must do is find their lost super (visit www.superguru.com.au to find out how), consolidate their accounts and ensure that their super fund has their latest contact details.

ASFA is also pleased that the MYEFO statement recognises the need for levies on all superannuation funds to match the reasonable costs involved in their supervision and other related activities. In particular we are pleased to see a reduction in the SuperStream levy on the APRA-regulated sector is foreshadowed. The Australian Taxation Office will also be better funded through the increase in the levy on self-managed superannuation funds.

The Government has also announced funding for a Superannuation Consumer Centre which we anticipate will focus on those areas of emerging consumer issues across the whole financial services system. One of ASFA’s key policy positions is the provision of information and assistance to superannuation fund members, for instance the Super Guru website established by ASFA provides considerable information and assistance in regard to the superannuation of individuals.

The MYEFO documents also announce a number of relatively minor changes relating to the rollover of balances and payment of benefits that will simplify administration and assist members. ASFA asked for such changes and is pleased that they are being implemented. They will bring about greater certainty for both funds and members.

Finally, the Government today announced the establishment of a SuperStream advisory council. It is essential that the SuperStream program be delivered in such a way as to maximise the benefits for employers, funds and fund members. According to Ms Vamos, “the members of the advisory council that were announced today have the high-level skills and experience to make SuperStream a success”.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Pauline Vamos, CEO, 0433 169 342

Rebecca Glenn, GM Marketing and Communications, (02) 8079 0825 or 0416 170 439

Megan McDougall, Media and Communications Coordinator, (02) 8079 0849

About ASFA

ASFA is the peak policy, research and advocacy body for Australia’s superannuation industry. It is a not-for-profit, sector-neutral, and non-party political national organisation whose aim is to advance effective retirement outcomes for members of funds through research, advocacy and the development of policy and industry best practice.

Acknowledgement of Country

We want to respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of these lands, seas, and waters throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders both past and present. We acknowledge the history, the resilience and the continual contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of their Country.

ABN 29 002 786 290

Amy C. Edmondson

Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.

Edmondson has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #1 in 2021 and 2023; she also received that organization’s Breakthrough Idea Award in 2019, and Talent Award in 2017.  She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organisational learning, and her articles have been published in numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review and California Management Review. Her 2019 book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (Wiley), has been translated into 15 languages. Her prior books – Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy (Jossey-Bass, 2012), Teaming to Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Extreme Teaming (Emerald, 2017) – explore teamwork in dynamic organisational environments. In Building the future: Big teaming for audacious innovation (Berrett-Koehler, 2016), she examines the challenges and opportunities of teaming across industries to build smart cities. 

Edmondson’s latest book, Right Kind of Wrong (Atria), builds on her prior work on psychological safety and teaming to provide a framework for thinking about, discussing, and practicing the science of failing well. First published in the US and the UK in September, 2023, the book is due to be translated into 24 additional languages, and was selected for the Financial Times and Schroders Best Business Book of the Year award.

Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked on transformational change in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller’s mathematical contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organisational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design from Harvard University.

Daniel Mulino MP

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

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.