The Federal Government has moved to implement what it sees as the key element of the Productivity Commission's final report on default funds under modern awards – the introduction of an expert panel within Fair Work Australia.
However, the Government's approach appears to be at odds with comments to Senate Estimates by the chairman of the Productivity Commission panel, Mike Woods, who said the expert panel should be the final decision-maker rather than a full bench of Fair Work Australia.
The Minister for Financial Services and Employment and Workplace Relations, Bill Shorten, has sought to set the changes in concrete via amendments to the Fair Work Act introduced to the Parliament yesterday.
However, the shadow Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann, immediately claimed the minister was effectively acting to protect the interests of his friends in the trade union movement by putting a stop to genuine competition in the superannuation default fund market.
"Now, the Government has introduced legislation into Parliament which, instead of ensuring genuine competition, will impose an additional layer of government intervention in the default fund market," Cormann said.
He claimed Shorten had introduced legislation that would see a continuation of a process where conflicted parties within Fair Work Australia would continue to select default super funds under modern awards.
Cormann pointed to the Government's approach to the implementation of MySuper and reinforced the Coalition's position that all MySuper funds should be eligible for selection as default funds.
However Shorten said that all funds with a general MySuper product would be able to apply for selection as a default fund on an equal basis, with the expert panel then assessing the funds on the basis of legislative criteria proposed by the Productivity Commission.
He said a full bench of Fair Work Australia would then determine which particular funds from the default fund list were best suited for inclusion in each modern award.
