Dear Jane, it’s a different tune but the same hymn sheet
Outsider has been hoping beyond hope that “Persevering Jane”, the Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy, Senator Jane Hume, was speaking tongue in cheek when she told the recent Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia conference that she was receiving good news from super fund boards and executives which did not line up with the bad news from industry organisations.
Persevering Jane told the conference: “Sometimes there’s a disconnect from what I heard from the funds and industry bodies. What I hear from chief executives and from boards and then there’s something completely different in newspapers – this is my greatest frustration”.
Newsflash, minister. The late Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer aside, it takes a very brave company director or executive to bluntly tell a minister of the Crown that their policy approach is crap lest it show up on the balance sheet – bad news is therefore a job best left to industry bodies and associations which can then absorb the pain.
Outsider has seen the $15,000 a year and substantially higher membership fees that major corporates and superannuation funds pay to be members of industry associations and in his experience those who pay the piper call the tune even if that tune is discordant to the delicate ears of ministers.
Given the minister’s past experience in the financial services industry Outsider is surprised she does not better understand the value of outsourcing.
AUTHOR
The Outsider
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