The end of yet another superannuation inquiry

The Productivity Commission (PC) has just finished a three-year comprehensive analysis of the superannuation industry.  It issued its final report to Government (and the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Financial Services and Superannuation Industry) in late December and the report became public on 10 January 2019.

Advance copies were given to selected journalists from the national media to maximise publicity on release.  Since then, there have been several uncomplimentary observations about much of the report from many superannuation experts.

This has been a worthwhile exercise and the quality was high up to the issue of the draft report in May 2018.  However, many parts of the Technical Supplements issued in November 2018 and the underlying modelling used for the PC’s benchmarking and analysis have not consistently demonstrated the same quality.  Most disappointingly, the link between the PC’s recommendations and its earlier analysis has become increasingly tenuous as the inquiry progressed.