At least someone in the Liberal Party is willing to acknowledge that the Government’s glossy Budget announcement to change Super has a gaping hole in it.  
 
But the Minister responsible, Jane Hume, remains in hiding, refusing to back her flawed performance benchmark. Perhaps she’s gone back to the drawing board?
 
Senator Bragg told Sky News on Thursday that “all fees” should be taken into account in the performance tables the Government has proposed.
 
Labor agrees.
 
As the Productivity Commission has made clear, Australians pay the second-highest administration fees in the world for their super funds.
 
It is vital administration fees are made transparent to super fund members in any measurement of their funds’ performance.
 
Labor warned the Government its failure to do so was a major design flaw in its plans.
Senator Bragg knows this is true.
 
If Assistant Minister Hume won’t consult with Labor or the industry to fix her botched Budget announcement, she should at least take advice from her backbench colleague.
 
The retirement savings of millions of Australians are at stake.
 
Background
 
Below is a transcript of Senator Andrew Bragg criticising the Government’s planned performance benchmarks, which omit administration fees.
 
Tom Connell: Made the changes to superannuation on the Budget, nothing on administration fees.  Despite a recommendation from the productivity commission and some pretty damning findings on them. Why no action here? 
 
Andrew Bragg: Well I’ve been calling for the past year for reform to superannuation and I think that the package in the Budget is a good step forward and I'm very supportive of more transparency, better governance, ultimately getting a better deal for the workers in Australia because for too long the workers have been losing out to the super funds, be they run by the banks or run by the unions. 
 
Tom Connell: Right, but the question was about administration fees. They now in fact dwarf investment fees. Australians pay the second highest admin fees in the world and no action on them. Why not? 
 
Andrew Bragg: Well, there will be action on all fees and what matters to members or workers is net return so all fees are relevant here, and I want to see all the fees come down. So I mean that is our agenda…
 
Tom Connell: But are admin fees, what actions are being done on admin fees?
 
Andrew Bragg: What you will see in the performance comparison tables is the total fees I mean that is what you will see. The agenda here is to try and cut fees and to make it simpler not to try and make it more confusing.