25 years of super - History of super marketing
2017 marks 25 years since the Keating government brought in the Superannuation Guarantee Levy, Starting at a paltry 3 per cent from employees, which was matched by bosses. In the past 25 years Australians have contributed $2 trillion into their super funds and received more than $1 trillion in net investment earnings and $1.1 trillion in retirement benefits.
Today's funds are becoming administratively advanced as any other modern financial institution.
Now with the nation's retirement piggy bank sitting comfortably above $2 trillion Rainmaker begins a trip down memory lane with insights in communicating superannuation and recent highlights in superannuation.
Super is something Australians have done for a long time
| 1862 |
About 30 per cent of public service employees and white-collar businessmen were given defined benefit schemes (where you paid a proportion of your salary into the fund, which then provided a retirement income that was usually a function of how long you worked) |
| 1890 |
State aged pension introduced |
| 1909 |
Commonwealth pension scheme (aged pension) |
| 1915 |
A new act introduced income tax, made superannuation savings tax-free and employer contributions tax-deductible |
| 1950s |
Treasury estimates less than 40 per cent had access to these benefits, restricted to permanent male executives |
| 1960s |
Tax concessions to the self-employed |
| 1970s |
First industry fund introduced |
| 1974 |
ABS showed only 32 per cent of the workforce, mostly male, were covered by super |
| 1980s |
Start of productivity bonuses in awards spurs emergence of more industry funds. |
| 1987 |
Arbitration commission supports awards super |
| 1988 |
51.3 per cent of australians had superannuation |
| 1990 |
Superannuation coverage had risen to 64 per cent |
| 1991 |
Keating govt wanted to rein in inflation, but give workers payrise of three per cent, so it was paid by employers into industry funds and workers couldn't spend it. Funds were controlled by equal numbers of employers and union representatives and workers |
| 1991 |
Introduction of the superannuation guarantee in budget by treasurer john kerin |
| 1992 |
ATO estimates superannuation guarantee increased coverage to 80 per cent |
| 1990s |
Member investment choice introduced |
| 1995 |
Keating proposed lifting superannuation guarantee to 15 per cent in budget |
| 1996 |
15 per cent superannuation guarantee promise reversed under howard/costello in budget |
| 1996 |
Government proposes super fund members be given the right to choose which super fund they join |
| 2000s |
Compliance overload prompts many employers to outsource their in-house corporate super funds to either master trusts or industry funds |
| 2003 |
Introduction of financial services reform act |
| 2004 |
Trustee licensing introduced and disclosure rules toughened. Choice of super fund legislation passed |
| 2005 |
Super choices comes into effect July 1 |
| 2006 |
Super choice extended to cover state awards and simpler super reforms introduced into parliament |
| 2007 |
Better super reforms become law and super is now largely tax free for people aged 60 or more, causing contributions to double. The amount of money that pours into self-managed super funds breaks all records. |
| 2007 |
Government ad on superannuation co-contributions teaches people about policy changes |
| 2008 |
Super funds allowed to offer first home saver accounts. Sub-prime crisis in US causes global financial crisis. |
| 2009 |
Government increases aged pension rates to supplement low super balances that have been hit by the global financial crisis, reduces the amount of concessionally taxed contributions workers can make to their super, and allows super funds to offer intra-fund financial advice. |
| 2010 |
Rudd government completes major reviews of the superannuation system and proposes increasing the superannuation guarantee rate to 12 per cent |
| 2011 |
Government announces Mysuper and future of financial advice reforms |
| 2012 |
Mysuper and financial advisor reform laws enacted |
| 2013 |
Mysuper starts |
| 2014 |
Default superannuation guarantee contributions can only go into mysuper products |
| 2016 |
Federal election campaign full of super wrangling |
| 2016 |
Major changes to superannuation tax concessions announced in 2016 budget |
