Call for 18 per cent SG

A financial services executive has called for the superannuation guarantee (SG) to be doubled to 18 per cent or the system will remain inadequate.

Chief executive officer of Australian Unity Investments, David Bryant, told a media briefing yesterday that the gradual increase of SG to 12 per cent would fail to achieve adequacy in retirement for Australians.

"The reality is that that number needs to be 18 per cent for two reasons," Bryant said.

"At effectively the 20-year anniversary of the implementation of compulsory superannuation, what we have to try and do is find an opportunity to actually do again what we already did — [this time] make 9 per cent into 18 per cent," he added.

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"It was one of those moments of rare enlightenment and cooperation between the unions, business, and the government and we need that degree of collaboration again."

The only sector able to resolve the capital investment issues facing Australia in healthcare, ageing, provision of services and adequacy in retirement is the superannuation system, Bryant said.

"And the superannuation system is inadequate — as proud as we want to feel about what we've managed to achieve over the last 20 years, it is grossly inadequate for what it needs to do, let alone for what it will need to do over the next 12 years and beyond," he said.