Industry superannuation

Industry superannuation funds in Australia refer to the group of retirement superannuation funds originally established to cater for workers from a specific industry.

From 1 July 2005, changes to Commonwealth legislation[2] allowed Australian employees (with some exceptions) to choose the fund into which their employers paid their superannuation. In turn, industry super funds were no longer industry specific and most became not-for-profit public offer funds, open to the majority of workers in Australia.

Despite choice of fund being an option for most Australian workers, most workers (over 75%) stick with the default fund their employer chooses, which is more often than not an Industry super fund.

The independent industrial relations umpire, the Fair Work Commission, nominates super funds that are suitable to be adopted by employers as default funds. Traditionally the funds nominated by the Fair Work Commission suitable as default funds are not-for-profit funds.

The four major banks in Australia own the majority of for-profit retail super funds and have been lobbying governments for legislative change to de-regulate the process traditionally used to nominate workplace default funds and make it easier for employers to adopt a bank-owned fund.

The Federal Abbott government has committed to opening up the default fund section system suggesting that doing so will generate greater competition.

Industry super funds are membership-based and do not have shareholders. In this aspect, they differ from retail funds (or wholesale master trusts) which are public offer funds managed by financial institutions, with the aim of returning dividends to shareholders.

Prior to 1992, superannuation was common, however there existed no national legislative requirement for employers to pay superannuation for their employees. Instead, industrial awards negotiated by the union movement sought to compel businesses to contribute to superannuation funds for and on behalf of their staff. This system was not uniform, and superannuation policies were tied to individual awards, with the potential to differ from industry to industry.

In 1992, the Keating Labor government introduced a compulsory ‘Superannuation Guarantee’ system as part of a major reform package to help relieve the growing burden on the taxpayer-funded government pension scheme. The change came about through a tripartite agreement between the government, employers and the trade unions. The trade unions agreed to forgo a national 3% pay increase which would be put into the new superannuation system for all employees in Australia. This was matched by employers' contributions which were set to increase over time.

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