Australia’s $4.1 trillion superannuation system is a fantastic tax-effective productivity war chest, but are those responsible for overseeing it shirking their duty to the country by passively allocating it to companies based on index position and size?

That’s the cracking question from AustralianSuper’s Shaun Manuell, the country’s biggest active equities’ investor, who oversees $97 billion worth of Australian shares, or an estimated 3.2 per cent of the ASX.