Media Release

Corporate bond debate needs to refocus

Published 4 April, 2012

Published 4 April, 2012

4 April 2012

Corporate bond debate needs to refocus

While the debate over super fund investment in equities and corporate bonds is a much-needed one, it is important the discussion is based on facts, the peak body for superannuation and retirement policy and research said today.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) said a mature debate was needed on the role the super industry could play in developing a corporate bond market to further enhance its role in the Australian economy.

Criticising the industry over its current asset allocation was over-simplifying the issue, ASFA said.

“ASFA provided a forum to further this important debate on investing in fixed interest at our Investment Interchange event last month because we are extremely mindful of the important role the super pool of assets must and does play in the Australian economy, particularly with ageing demographics and increased market volatility,” said ASFA chief executive officer, Pauline Vamos.

“There has been criticism that the superannuation industry does not invest enough in the corporate bond market but, the fact is, many Australian corporates find it difficult to issue bonds in the Australian marketplace.

“Super funds have fundamental faith in Australian corporates and would like to display that faith by providing debt, whether it be to banks, government or corporates, but the foundations for developing a sustainable market are not yet there.

“While former Secretary to the Treasury Ken Henry rightly said at ASFA’s Investment Interchange that there is a need for super funds to consider their overall allocation to equities, it is important to understand that the discussion on the role of fixed interest investment in superannuation portfolios is not about the relative attractiveness of bond investments today.

“What the industry needs to be debating is the long-term structure of superannuation portfolios and the appropriate place of fixed interest investments, given the changed investment landscape and ageing demographics.

“As Doug McTaggart, chief executive of QIC said during his presentation at ASFA’s event, super funds can invest in bonds overseas if they want to. The discussion we’re trying to have is what, if anything, can be done to ensure we can develop the market here and ensure super funds can invest in domestic bonds and enable Australian corporates to have a choice of funding. This is heightened as Australian banks are finding it more difficult to access overseas debt.

“What is being missed in the public debate is that whether it’s equity or debt, the underlying investment is still in Australian corporates.

“The role of super in fixed interest is part of the wider conversation on how we ensure that the super pool drives the economy, drives sustainable long-term returns and delivers adequate retirement incomes.”

For media inquiries, please contact:

Pauline Vamos, CEO, 0433 169 342

Rebecca Glenn, GM Marketing and Communications, 0416 170 439

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

About ASFA – the voice of super

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia is the peak industry body representing the superannuation and retirement industry. ASFA is the only organisation that represents all types of superannuation funds (retail, industry, corporate and public sector) and associated service providers. ASFA members manage or advise on the bulk of the $1.3 trillion in superannuation assets as at September 2011. Its members represent over 90 per cent of the approximately 12 million Australians with superannuation.

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.