Grahame McCulloch NTEU General Secretary
I am very grateful for the response of UniSuper Fund members including those who are members of NTEU in registering a strong protest about the serious mistake made by UniSuper Management in issuing a Press Release opposing the proposed Royal Commission into Banking. This was a very serious error of judgement and I will be making a detailed presentation to a closed session of the Board next week. As part of this presentation I will ensure the Board clearly understands the fundamental nature of this mistake, and had you not registered your protest this would not be possible.
This mistake has the potential to be a serious distraction from the Board’s core current strategic objective – to implement Flexichoices – a retirement product that has the potential to be of great benefit to Fund members. Introducing this product is a very complex matter involving the interaction of many political, industrial, technical, investment and planning considerations, particularly because developing a consensus around the implementation of the product’s contribution flexibility component has still not been achieved. The key obligation of NTEU as the pre-eminent Trade Union in higher education is to guarantee the success of this product and to deal with this outstanding matter.
Despite this serious error of judgement the overall shape of Flexichoices has been possible because UniSuper is overwhelmingly the best managed and run Fund in Australia (it has a talented CEO Kevin O’Sullivan backed up by one of the country’s most astute investment managers John Pearce and a very effective Chairman Chris Cuffe), and the best possible governance model for any of Australia’s superannuation funds blending staff and union representatives, employer representatives and independent directors with deep superannuation knowledge/experience. And every one of them genuinely acts on what they perceive to be in the best interests of members. The only thing it lacks is a proper voice for Trade Unions and Fund members in the core of its structure – the shareholding company (USL) and its Consultative Committee. Had there been such a voice in these structures then this distraction would not have occurred. The fundamental issue is that NTEU must have a genuine ownership share and there must be deep reform of the Consultative Committee.
This has placed me in a very difficult position in developing a creative and productive solution to ensuring that Flexichoices is implemented as seamlessly as possible given the complex factors referred to above – which is my key obligation as the General Secretary of the NTEU and a UniSuper Director.
The UniSuper Board has authorised a Statement to be issued by CEO Kevin O’Sullivan and Chairman Chris Cuffe, probably at around the same time that you will receive this Statement. I support the Board’s Statement as I believe it contains the basis for resolving the issues as I see them. And I intend to make a recommendation to the closed session which I hope can finally resolve all these issues on a comprehensive basis. I am hopeful that all Directors will be able to support my recommendations but it is important for Fund members (including NTEU members) to understand that if a solution is not found it is unlikely that Flexichoice can be implemented as smoothly as the current planning process assumes.
I believe the UniSuper Board has genuinely heard the concerns of Fund members (including those who are NTEU members) and I would therefore urge that any of you who may still be wishing to register a protest should not do so.
I am very grateful for the response of UniSuper Fund members including those who are members of NTEU in registering a strong protest about the serious mistake made by UniSuper Management in issuing a Press Release opposing the proposed Royal Commission into Banking. This was a very serious error of judgement and I will be making a detailed presentation to a closed session of the Board next week. As part of this presentation I will ensure the Board clearly understands the fundamental nature of this mistake, and had you not registered your protest this would not be possible.
This mistake has the potential to be a serious distraction from the Board’s core current strategic objective – to implement Flexichoices – a retirement product that has the potential to be of great benefit to Fund members. Introducing this product is a very complex matter involving the interaction of many political, industrial, technical, investment and planning considerations, particularly because developing a consensus around the implementation of the product’s contribution flexibility component has still not been achieved. The key obligation of NTEU as the pre-eminent Trade Union in higher education is to guarantee the success of this product and to deal with this outstanding matter.
Despite this serious error of judgement the overall shape of Flexichoices has been possible because UniSuper is overwhelmingly the best managed and run Fund in Australia (it has a talented CEO Kevin O’Sullivan backed up by one of the country’s most astute investment managers John Pearce and a very effective Chairman Chris Cuffe), and the best possible governance model for any of Australia’s superannuation funds blending staff and union representatives, employer representatives and independent directors with deep superannuation knowledge/experience. And every one of them genuinely acts on what they perceive to be in the best interests of members. The only thing it lacks is a proper voice for Trade Unions and Fund members in the core of its structure – the shareholding company (USL) and its Consultative Committee. Had there been such a voice in these structures then this distraction would not have occurred. The fundamental issue is that NTEU must have a genuine ownership share and there must be deep reform of the Consultative Committee.
This has placed me in a very difficult position in developing a creative and productive solution to ensuring that Flexichoices is implemented as seamlessly as possible given the complex factors referred to above – which is my key obligation as the General Secretary of the NTEU and a UniSuper Director.
The UniSuper Board has authorised a Statement to be issued by CEO Kevin O’Sullivan and Chairman Chris Cuffe, probably at around the same time that you will receive this Statement. I support the Board’s Statement as I believe it contains the basis for resolving the issues as I see them. And I intend to make a recommendation to the closed session which I hope can finally resolve all these issues on a comprehensive basis. I am hopeful that all Directors will be able to support my recommendations but it is important for Fund members (including NTEU members) to understand that if a solution is not found it is unlikely that Flexichoice can be implemented as smoothly as the current planning process assumes.
I believe the UniSuper Board has genuinely heard the concerns of Fund members (including those who are NTEU members) and I would therefore urge that any of you who may still be wishing to register a protest should not do so.
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