ACTU slams Productivity Commission’s super report

Australia’s peak trade union body says there were critical flaws in the Productivity Commission’s draft findings.

ACTU Assistant Secretary Scott Connolly. Picture: Kym Smith

Australia’s peak trade union body has slammed a landmark report into superannuation, saying there were critical flaws in the Productivity Commission’s draft findings.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions have labelled a finding in today’s Productivity Commission draft report that super and enterprise bargaining should be de-linked as “badly misjudged”.

In a statement, the ACTU said there supported some of the findings into the report but had a number of complaints.

“The peak body for working people … has identified critical flaws in the direction taken by the commission,” an ACTU spokesman said.

“The suggestion that members’ interests are best served by breaking the link between industry awards, workers’ representatives and employer bodies … is badly misguided.”

The link between worker’s super and wage negotiations are a result of the Accords drawn up under former prime minister Bob Hawke during the 1980s and were meant to ensure workers receive wage rises without increasing inflation.

ACTU assistant secretary Scott Connolly said superannuation was an “industrial right” and wants the link to remain.

“Superannuation is an industrial right and comes from workers’ deferred wages,” he said.

“The link between employers, unions, workers and their funds has been a key reason why industry super funds have systemically out-performed bank-owned super funds, and a pillar of the success of our retirement system.”

“It is deeply concerning that many of former banker Kelly O’Dwyer’s ideas — which aim to put our super in the hands of for-profit bankers — appear to be embraced in this draft report.”

Mr Connolly also said he did not support the creation of an independent panel to oversee superannuation regulation and reform.

“The ACTU supports taking the politics out of superannuation, but this Government cannot be trusted to establish an independent panel,” he said.

“Especially given the number of political appointees and politicised agencies under its direction.”

The ACTU has said it will consider the 570-page report and plans to put in a submission to the Productivity Commission ahead of its final draft.