Liberal MPs questioned executives from Industry Super Holdings (ISH) over its links to the New Daily, a news website owned by Industry Super Australia that has been the subject of controversy over its editorial independence and the fact that it was funded using members’ savings.
ISH said that it did not provide the New Daily with revenue, but provided capital “as required” — a statement that was greeted with disbelief from MP Tim Wilson.
“I’m looking forward to the rant from the deputy chair about how outrageous it is that we’ve called this body before this committee when they can’t provide even basic information about revenue that’s provided from Australia’s compulsory retirement savings to media entities that are then used to push a political agenda,” Mr Wilson said.
ISH company secretary Joshua Lim declined to say how many times ISH had provided capital to the New Daily, saying the information could be prejudicial and that the matter was confidential. Later in the hearings, Mr Lim defended ISA’s ownership of the New Daily as integral to keeping its members informed despite the fact that it was a loss-making investment and denying that it or the industry funds had control over the publication’s contents.
“There are many companies out there that are currently making a loss, but they are valuable and can be sold for millions… It’s a valuable service, we look at it from that perspective and we also look at it from a financial perspective,” Mr Lim said.
ISH was also criticised for its governance structure and its refusal to disclose to the standing committee how much cash it held or how much it received in dividends — something that ISH said was a “confidential matter”, but which some members of the committee took exception to.
“Australians’ compulsory superannuation savings are held by a number of entities under ISH, which refuses to provide any information about the basis of how much it holds and how much it receives,” Mr Wilson said.
yes they are. it is called regulatory capture
How is it that ASIC and APRA are not investigating these breaches already? They’s happy enough to ban and prosecute a single SMSF advice provider (accountant/planner) for minor issues, and yet when it comes to millions of dollars affecting hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of members super balances, they won’t even look at it????????
Is ASIC corrupt?
Maybe not corrupt; definitely incompetent; and definitely conflicted.
When grilled at the Royal Commission, wasn’t their excuse for not tackling the banks over blatant breaches that it was “too hard”.
Add to that the fact that ASIC and APRA love big industry funds, while openly hating the SMSF industry, and you get a picture of why these things are let slip.