Former treasurer Wayne Swan hauled to inquiry over super scandal

Former treasurer Wayne Swan has been ordered to face a hostile Liberal inquiry over Labor-aligned superannuation funds after he was threatened with jail time, escalating the Coalition’s barrage of attacks against the retirement income industry.

Anti-superannuation Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg will question Swan, the chair of Cbus, about the construction industry super fund’s alleged failure to deliver $20 million of death and disability payouts in a timely manner that prompted the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to take Cbus to court.

Cbus chairman Wayne Swan has blasted critics of industry super funds.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Swan, Labor’s national president, wrote to Bragg on Sunday refusing to attend a parliamentary committee hearing on the performance of industry funds because Cbus’ chief executive had already appeared.

But Bragg upped his threat in a letter on Tuesday morning and Swan agreed to provide evidence to MPs including Bragg on Friday, who has long campaigned for a system that would not push Australians into funds linked to unions that Liberals believe invest billions into areas favouring Labor priorities.

If Swan had refused to comply with an order to attend a hearing, he could have been found in contempt of the Senate, which can be punished by fines or imprisonment – although no one has gone to jail for defying an order.

Bragg said: “These are serious matters ... to pursue. The people expect us to leave no stone unturned and we won’t.”

Industry super funds make better returns and have lower fees than bank-run competitors, yet some Liberals have been antagonistic towards them because they have union board members alongside employer directors. Some funds give money to unions.

Liberals targeting Swan, who was treasurer through the global financial crisis, have tried to tie him to Jim Chalmers in an attempt to dent the economic authority of the current treasurer who served as Swan’s chief of staff. The government’s stimulus package during the GFC kept the nation out of recession, but the Coalition has cast the billions Swan spent to keep the economy afloat as reckless.

According to this masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor, 41 per cent of people surveyed back the Coalition to manage the economy, a top election consideration, compared to 27 per cent for Labor. Labor led in this measure in July last year.

Chalmers was forced to deny Coalition claims last week that he spoke with Swan about the government’s contentious tinkering with the Future Fund set up by the Howard government.

Wayne Swan, Jim Chalmers and Paul Keating at a roundtable at Visy boss Anthony Pratt’s apartment last year.Credit: Oscar Coleman

Swan said John Howard and former treasurer Peter Costello had been “dragged out” to attack the redirection of the fund towards housing, green energy and infrastructure.

Swan, who appears on breakfast television and is one of few Labor elders who regularly talks about the economy, also created controversy in September when he pilloried the Reserve Bank for “hammering mums and dads”, fuelling opposition claims Labor was undermining the bank.

ASIC launched court proceedings last week against Cbus after it failed to identify and prevent delays in processing death and disability insurance claims for 10,000 members amounting to $20 million.

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