It took tough reform to get Australia’s superannuation system off the ground 40 years ago. Paul Keating and his cohort did it, and now those whose professional and personal lives are much better for it are lucky enough to sit around talking about what to do with it.
He says every Australian company is only one or two seconds away from any investor in the world, most of whom will like the rule of law and market sophistication. There’s also Keating’s homegrown superannuation sector, which is a deep capital pool and the envy of many other countries. If there is a problem, or indeed a better way, it is up to the politicians to define and solve it, like Keating did 40 years ago when he put investment risk with workers, demanded they be compensated for it, and reformed the tax system.You cannot rely on Macquarie Group boss Shemara Wikramanayake, National Australia Bank’s Andrew Irvine, Westpac’s Peter King or ANZ CFO Farhan Faruqui, all active participants in Tuesday’s roundtable, to lead that sort of country-defining change.