Industry Super Australia CEO responds to Peter Strong’s lost superannuation claims

On June 24, 2022, SmartCompany published an article by Peter Strong, former CEO of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, which argued billions of dollars in retirement savings have been lost because “vested interests” in the superannuation sector resisted calls to change the way super is collected. 

Industry Super Australia chief executive Bernie Dean has responded with the following letter:

Thankfully Peter Strong’s divisive and partisan approach to the shocking problem of workers not being paid their super is a thing of the past, with growing consensus among government, regulators and employer bodies that finding a way to better align payment of super and wages is the most sensible and sustainable solution. There was never any such consensus for the idea that the Australian Taxation Office solely administer the distribution of super contributions.

We look forward to working with employer organisations to ensure their members have every support to better align the payment of super with wages.

Workers deserve to be paid the super they’ve earned, and employers of all sizes deserve to be treated equally, and not undercut by those gaining unfair advantage by exploiting lax enforcement and outdated laws that allow super to be paid quarterly.