Spill at the top of super money mound
Heads appear to have rolled at the Fair Work Commission’s (FWC) expert superannuation panel, with half its members jumping ship over conflict of interest allegations.
Two of the four people tasked with reviewing the super funds for workplaces have resigned, and a third has been cleared and allowed to continue.
President of the FWC, Iain Ross, has dismissed panellists Vicki Allen and Stephen Gibbs due to perceived conflicts of interest, which were raised by the Financial Services Association (FSC) in a letter to the FWC.
Vicki Allen is the director of the Motor Trades Association of Australia Superannuation Fund, an authorised MySuper product.
“In my view it is likely that if expert panel member Allen continues to deal with [this] matter she will receive confidential or commercially sensitive information about funds or entities that are actual or potential competitors of the MTAA Superannuation Fund or the trustee of that fund,” Mr Ross said.
Disclosure statements have revealed that Ms Allen also resigned as the director of Superannuation Administration Corporation just three days after a letter from Mr Ross requested further information about it.
Mr Ross said he removed Mr Gibbs from the panel when it was reveal that he is the director of Australian Ethical Superannuation, a trustee of the Australian Ethical Retail Superannuation Fund (AER), also a MySuper product.
The dismissal of the two executives throws an even darker shadow of doubt over the FWC’s role electing the default workplace superfunds.
News Corp publication The Australian is reporting FSC also want the FWC to get out of deliberations.
“This has basically rendered the process impotent. We want the Fair Work Commission to be removed completely from the process of selecting super funds in awards,” FSC chief executive John Brogden said.