Industry super fund sector call on Andrew Bragg to correct ‘false’ claim about cost of ad campaign with Greg Combet
Super industry calls on Liberal senator Andrew Bragg to correct a ‘false’ claim he made about the cost of an ad campaign featuring former Labor Minister Greg Combet.
The long-running battle between the not-for-profit superannuation sector and a group of Liberal Party MPs has taken another turn, with the industry funds pressing for a correction from Andrew Bragg on “false” claims he made about the cost of an advertising campaign.
The funds, through their lobbying and marketing arm Industry Super Australia, turned up the heat by drawing on Senator Bragg’s warning to ASIC chair Joe Longo last week that misleading parliament was a “very serious matter”.
“We agree with Senator Bragg that misleading the parliament is a ‘very serious matter’, so he should correct the false claims he made to the parliament about industry super funds,” ISA chief executive Bernie Dean said in an interview.
The Liberal senator declined to take Mr Dean’s advice on a correction, saying the industry funds should not be spending “a single dollar” on advertising and marketing.
Further, he said the advertising campaign, which featured former senior Labor Minister Greg Combet promoting the sector’s nation-building investment capability, should have been ruled out of order by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority because it “could not possibly be in members’ best financial interests”, as required by the law.
Mr Longo has denied Senator Bragg’s assertion that ASIC might have misled parliament over the regulator’s evidence to a committee that no investigation was underway into switching by super fund trustees and executives; that is, taking their retirement savings out of unlisted assets before valuations were lowered at the start of Covid-19.
The ASIC chief told the committee that Senator Bragg’s description of the activity as insider trading was “regrettable because that is not what this actually is”.
“What’s really going on here is a concern that ASIC had and that we’ve been working on – we see it more as a governance issue — managing conflicts around certain individuals having access to the information and then those conflicts not being properly managed when they switch investments within their fund,” he said.
Senator Bragg wrote to Mr Longo earlier this week, warning him that misleading parliament was a very serious matter.
ISA, meanwhile, has long been seeking a correction to Senator Bragg’s statement in a committee hearing that it had spent $40m on the Combet advertising campaign and $12m on another campaign.
Mr Dean said in a letter a year ago to the committee chair that the claims were false, and when taken together represented “more than double” ISA’s entire annual expenditure across all its activities.
ISA said the senator had repeated the false claim outside parliament after the letter was sent.
Senator Bragg was unrepentant.
“The (Combet) campaign was extremely vain because it was fronted by a former politician,” he said.
“And it was also highly political, which could not possibly have been in the best financial interests of members.
“If it was in their best financial interests, then we have a major problem with APRA.”
APRA has not taken any action against ISA – or its member funds – over the group’s marketing and advertising, which has become a key focus for critics of the sector.
Japan looks past ‘risks’ for investment push
Japanese investors are looking at Australia’s economic story of growth and stability as an opportunity, and in recent years inbound investments have surged.
ANZ boss signals successor strategy is on track
ANZ chief Shayne Elliott doesn’t expect to remain in the top job to see through a multi-year integration of Suncorp’s bank, as he hinted at a potential changeover in 2025.