MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Let’s now turn to superannuation, an issue of great importance to all of us. More than a dozen super funds have been deemed to be underperforming by the Tax Office’s online comparison tool. It’s assessed 76 funds, 13 being named and shamed. The Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Superannuation, Jane Hume, joins us now from Parliament House in Canberra. Senator Hume, good morning to you. So what happens to these 13 funds?
JANE HUME:
Well, these 13 funds, Michael, have been identified as underperforming, and the reason why that’s so important is because superannuation for so long has operated in the dark. It’s very hard to know whether your super fund when it sends you a statement every year is a good performer or a poor performer. But now on this online comparison tool on the ATO website you can put in your personal details, the amount of money that you have and compare your fund to other funds on the basis of performance and on the basis of fees.
So in the next month or so the members - the 1.1 million members - of those underperforming super funds - around $56 billion that they have in those funds - are going to receive a letter from their super fund saying, “Hey, what was written on the box wasn’t what we delivered.” And they will be except to that online comparison tool to potentially find a fund that might better suit them.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay. And are there any sanctions, possible penalties for the trustees, the people who run these funds?
JANE HUME:
Well, we want those funds to improve their performance, to do that my improving their investment performance but also by lowering their fees. You know, Australians still pay around $30 billion a year in superannuation fees. That’s more than they pay in their energy bills. The only difference is, of course, when you receive an energy bill, it’s quite confronting, but you don’t see those fees in your super funds. So this is the first time that it’s been explicit.
Now those trustees have to either improve their performance over the next year, if they don’t they won’t be allowed to accept new members into their funds.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay, that’s a stick there. And now of the 13, were they mainly retail funds, industry funds, a mix of the both? What was the mix?
JANE HUME:
It was a mix of everything - retail funds, industry funds and corporate funds as well. And there were some quite familiar names in that group. But the most important thing now is that people can say, “Well. Let’s have a look at my super fund.” You know, use the first day of spring to do a bit of a super spring clean. Go to this website, the online comparison tool, the Your Super comparison tool, and see whether one of your funds is one of the underperforming funds or, indeed, one of the outperforming funds, which is terrific news as well. There’s a lot of funds that have done exceptionally well this year as well. And you can see which ones they are on the basis of performance and on the basis of fees.
More importantly, when you get to that ATO website, you can actually consolidate your superannuation as well if you have multiple accounts. And if you’ve got any lost or unclaimed super, it will be there for you to find as well.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay. Let’s talk about the Covid situation. Your cabinet colleague the Attorney-General, Michaelia Cash, is suggesting - just suggesting at this stage - there may be a High Court challenge to states like WA down the track once we hit 80 per cent and they don’t reopen their borders. Given what happened with Clive Palmer’s disastrous attempts on borders and High Courts last year, is this really where we want to go as a country, takes these border closures to the High Court?
JANE HUME:
I think that Michaelia has been well misinterpreted there. There is going to be no High Court challenge to borders. But what she was simply saying is that the justification for keeping borders closed -
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
She’s leaving the way open for it, that’s the way I read it. She’s leaving the way open for High Court challenges.
JANE HUME:
No, I think she was saying that the reasoning behind that High Court challenge last year that was taken out by Clive Palmer, the reasoning behind that really will have diminished once we reach those vaccination rates. So, again, while we’re also urging people to go on to the ATO website, we’re also urging people to get out there and get themselves vaccinated so we can stick to the national plan and reopen our borders get back to life as we knew it.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
And, finally, Harvey Norman has, I guess, pretty much been shamed in handing back the $6 million of JobKeeper payments he got last year. Is it now contingent on other firms who got JobKeeper but didn’t really need it, Jane Hume, to give it back to taxpayers, too?
JANE HUME:
Well, I think back in March last year when we announced JobKeeper, that lifeline measure that helped so many businesses build a bridge to the other side of this pandemic and maintain that contact with their employers, they did the right thing. They did it on the basis of an expect drop in revenue. Now some of those companies - which is great news - didn’t see that and, in fact, employment figures that we’ve seen that are so positive and buoyant really play that out. We’d love, of course, to see as many companies that feel that they didn’t need that JobKeeper money to return it, but there is no compulsion to do so.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
But there’s nothing you can do it about it, because it’s perfectly legal what they’re doing, unlike welfare recipients who you chase for bad debts.
JANE HUME:
Well, the JobKeeper program was put together for a very specific purpose, and that was to maintain employees’ contact with their employers during the worst time of the pandemic. Now those employers, some of them have done very well, which is really good, but some of them are still struggling, too. And we’re not through this yet. We want to make sure that we get to the other side of this with as many people in jobs as possible.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
If you don’t get the money back, we just write off that taxpayers’ money from these corporates?
JANE HUME:
Well, I think that we know that many of those companies used that money to keep their connection with their employees, and it was what helped them get to the other side of this pandemic. Now, we’re not there yet, so let’s make sure that we get as many companies, you know, humming, thriving. We want the economy to keep ticking over so that when we get through these lockdowns as many people can get back to work, get back to their normal lives as possible.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay, Jane Hume. I appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for joining us.
JANE HUME:
Great to be with you, Michael.