Coonan digs heels in on portability

Assistant Treasurer Senator Helen Coonan has signalled the Government will not be departing from its approach to superannuation portability despite its portability regulations being disallowed by the Senate on Thursday.

Senator Coonan has accused the Australian Labor Party of holding superannuation fund members hostage to funds chosen for them by someone else.

“It is hard to believe in this day and age that anyone could seriously suggest Australian workers cannot have a say about where their superannuation money goes,” Senator Coonan says.

“Portability is a policy designed to give superannuation members greater ownership of their superannuation funds, to save on fees and charges, and to inject a shot of competition into the arm of the superannuation industry,” she says.

“The extraordinary thing about the disallowance motion is that, despite the confected outrage and rhetoric, the Senate Select Committee on Superannuation unanimously supports the principle of portability and supports the ability of individuals to consolidate their superannuation accounts,” Senator Coonan says. “Even the Labor Party acknowledges that it is desirable to consolidate multiple accounts and concedes that portability is already widely available from inactive accounts.”

“So what we have here is, contrary to their stated desire to protect the ordinary worker, the Labor Party is now discriminating against those workers who do not already have the right to consolidate accounts and save on fees and charges,” she says.

The ALP Opposition moved with the support of the Australian Democrats on Thursday to disallow superannuation portability regulations gazetted by the Government on July 31 after Senator Coonan declined to amend the regulations consistent with the recommendations of a unanimous report by the Senate Select Committee on Superannuation.