The peak body for trade unions has launched a stinging attack on ASIC and APRA, accusing the regulators of failing to prevent the First Guardian and Shield scandals, which could leave investors more than $1 billion out of pocket.
The ACTU reserved its sharpest criticism for APRA, arguing the prudential regulator “failed to recognise and respond to the very visible and growing systemic risk of predatory for-profit providers duping workers into putting their life savings into under-policed platform superannuation fund products”.
It said APRA could not claim a lack of resources to address emerging threats, noting the regulator reported a surplus last year.
Instead, the ACTU alleges APRA has “failed” and has been preoccupied with targeting the union-backed superannuation sector, “attempting to de-legitimise the role of member and employer representation on high-performing super funds”.
ACTU assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell said APRA had effectively given up on properly regulating for-profit platform trustees, a failure he argues has “robbed workers of tens of thousands of dollars of their life savings and could now end up costing them even more”.
“First Guardian and Shield’s collapses suggest that the regulator has been focusing on culture wars rather than monitoring and preventing the growing systemic risk to workers posed by unregulated self-managed super funds and for-profit platforms,” he said.
“Working people are right to expect more from regulators than the abandonment they have experienced.”