Political advertising does not breach sole purpose says AustSuper

AustralianSuper has told the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services that it believes political advertising is allowable and consistent with the so-called “sole purpose test” within the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act (SIS Act).

In written submissions responding to the Royal Commission’s most recent round of hearings and dealing with its financial support for Industry Super Australia’s (ISA’s) ‘fox in the henhouse’ advertising campaign, AustralianSuper has cited the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) in claiming that “public advocacy conducted through ‘political advertising’ is entirely consistent with the sole purpose in section 62 of the SIS Act, provided the advocacy is aptly directed to the maintenance and improvement of retirement benefits”.

The big industry fund also referred to the constitutional right of organisations to participate in policy debates.

“There is no reason to construe section 62 of the SIS Act as prohibiting absolutely policy (or political) communications undertaken by superannuation trustees, and any such absolute prohibition would be likely to infringe the constitutional freedom referred to in the preceding paragraph,” the fund’s submission said.

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“It is consistent with the sole purpose of providing retirement benefits for a trustee to engage in policy (or political) communications which are properly directed to maintaining and improving the retirement benefits received by the trustee’s beneficiaries.”

“As the High Court concluded in a broadly analogous context, public advocacy which is suitably directed to influencing government policy on the best methods for the relief of poverty through the provision of foreign aid is not disqualified from being characterised as charitable merely because the activity takes the form of political communications,” it submission said.