Fund chief calls on Abbott to rethink super changes THE head of one of the country's biggest superannuation funds has urged the Coalition to reconsider its proposed changes to tax and contributions, warning they would undermine confidence. Ian Silk, chief executive of the $62 billion AustralianSuper, welcomed a pledge by the Coalition not to make any surprise changes to super and said a government proposal to remove changes to super regulation from the political process had merit. But he said its plans to remove the super contributions tax rebate for low-income earners and delay an increase in mandatory super contributions were "retrograde" steps. It is another intervention in the system that has the potential to harm confidence in the overall super system, just by virtue of it being yet another change to what people's expectations . . . were. The Coalition plans to hit workers on an income of $37,000 with a $500-a-year tax on super contributions. In his budget reply speech, Tony Abbott also said he would delay the increase in employer super contributions from 9 to 12 per cent by two years to 2021, to help bring the budget back to surplus. At the annual conference of the Stockbrokers Association of Australia yesterday, shadow superannuation spokesman Mathias Cormann said that to the extent that income was sacrificed for super, the delay in the move to 12 per cent would deliver a pay rise for workers. But on the sidelines of the conference Mr Silk said that argument could be applied to super more generally. "The logical extension of that is that you do away with super and everyone gets a 9 per cent pay increase," Mr Silk said. Nobody is suggesting that is a good thing. Mr Silk said any moves to introduce independent directors to super funds should apply across all funds after moves by the opposition to target industry funds, which are governed by nominees of unions and employer groups. "I think the more important issue for me is that whatever changes apply, apply consistently across the industry and are not mandated for one sector or the other," he said. Opposition legislative amendments passed last month were "not intended to apply across both sectors and for the life of me I don't know why when by any objective measure, over the long term and the short term, industry fund returns have been superior to retail funds." Mr Silk said the retirement savings industry had a duty to operate with higher standards than other industries because it implemented public policy.