Australian super funds plot $330bn spending blitz to help fight Donald Trump’s tariffs

Super fund giants will join Australian ambassador Kevin Rudd in Washington DC to unleash new investment in the US that could protect Australia in Donald Trump’s trade war.

Australia’s super funds are preparing to unleash a $330bn investment blitz in the US over the next decade in a move they say could help convince Donald Trump to back down on whacking our exports with tariffs.

A high-powered delegation of superannuation leaders will join Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd in Washington DC next week to meet Trump administration officials, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spruiked the summit in a call with the US President.

While 20 per cent of the retirement savings of Australians are already invested in the US, the nation’s biggest super funds are planning to strike new deals that could grow investments in US private markets from $US50bn ($A78bn) to as much as $US240bn ($A378bn) by 2035.

Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd will meet Trump’s administration officials next week.

Aussie super fund giants hope the move will convince Donald Trump to back down on whacking Australian exports with tariffs. Picture: AP

IFM Investors global external relations head David Whiteley said the scale of super fund spending in America had become “a critically important part of our economic relationship”.

Asked whether it could help Mr Albanese convince Mr Trump to carve out Australia from his tariffs, Super Members Council executive general manager for strategy Matt Linden said: “There’ll obviously be complex decisions around those things but it can only help.”

“When there’s such a significant quantum of savings which need to be invested, that does bring influence,” he added in an interview.

Australia’s $4.5 trillion pot of pension capital is the fastest-growing in the world and is set to overtake Canada and the UK in the next decade to be the biggest behind the US.

Donald Trump has threatened and imposed a variety of new tariffs for his second term in office. Picture: Getty / AFP

Mr Linden said the US was already the biggest overseas investment destination for the super funds, in what was a “win-win” for the nest eggs of Australian workers.

“The funds are on the hunt for the best deals and investments they can make on behalf of members,” he said.

“It means that we can invest in some of the most dynamic companies and the best assets, but also bring back to members the returns into their super accounts to help them get a better retirement.”

Mr Whiteley said the “significant infrastructure gap” in the US – with ageing roads, ports and bridges, and an increasing need for energy and telecommunications infrastructure – represented a “huge opportunity” that the super funds had been targeting in recent years.

“The opportunity to come and speak to some of the most senior policymakers and business leaders and investors over here is something that I think members would expect their funds to be doing,” he said.

Paul Schroder, the boss of Australia’s biggest fund AustralianSuper, said it already had $83bn invested in the US and saw an “unparalleled opportunity” for further growth “to help more Australians achieve their best financial position in retirement”.