Hands off super until election, say execs
There should be no substantial changes to superannuation before the forthcoming Federal election, according to a roundtable held by Money Management's sister publication Super Review.
The roundtable which comprised key superannuation industry identities including new Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) chief executive, Tom Garcia, favoured considered long-term policy change rather than any hastily cobbled together initiatives in a pre-election Budget.
Energy Industry Super chief executive Alex Hutchison said it should be "hands-off super" given the volume of change which had been imposed on the industry in recent years.
"I am an advocate of no further taxes on super," he said.
Hutchison also argued that the Government had made a mistake in seeking to connect superannuation to tax — something which had not been the approach of previous Governments.
Garcia said that while AIST was talking to Government and looking for change, such change needed to be long-term and based on the situation which would prevail 20 years out.
"It you're going to do change, have a long transition period," he said. "Don't implement change which will impact people who are going to be retiring in the next two or three years because that just throws everything in a great mess.
"So that is the difference between tinkering and change," he said.
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