Industry Super Australia has backed Federal Opposition leader, Bill Shorten’s plans to change dividend imputation arrangements, arguing that it will have little or no impact on the super of most Australians.

Commenting on the proposal, ISA chief executive, David Whiteley described the policy move as “sensible” and suggested that it could significantly improve the fairness of the superannuation system if some of the savings were reinvested “to ensure the system responds to the changing nature of work which is stunting the retirement savings of women and millions of other lower and middle-income earners”.

“Super funds where most Australians have their retirement savings will be largely unaffected by this proposal because the imputation credits are exhausted offsetting tax liabilities of the fund,” the ISA CEO said.

Whiteley said it had been evident for several years that policy changes were needed to modernise the super system and there was a need to make the system fairer and, by reducing reliance on the aged pension, more economically sustainable.

“Currently, at retirement age, the super savings gap between women and men on the same salary is 47.4 per cent. This gender super gap must be addressed, as a result of this policy proposal,” he said.

ISA urged the Government to support the proposal – which even the Financial Systems Inquiry raised as an issue – and re-invest savings in a targeted way to improve the super system.