The chief of Australia's largest industry fund, AustralianSuper, is urging politicians, especially the independents, to rank superannuation adequacy high on the agenda as negotiations progress to form the next government.
Ian Silk, chief executive of the $30 billion-plus AustralianSuper, is renewing calls for SG to be raised from 9 per cent to 12 per cent as a matter of "utmost national importance".
In particular, he is calling on the independents to think carefully about super policy and its impact on the average working Australian - and their eventual quality of life in retirement.
"Ensuring an adequate financial future for ordinary Australians should be a priority for whoever forms the new government," said Silk.
"This increase is vital and we call on the leaders of all parties and the independents to commit to implementing the increased superannuation guarantee."
Pauline Vamos, chief executive of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, commended the super fund's initiative.
"AustralianSuper is the largest industry fund, and Ian Silk as an industry leader has a lot of credibility.
"The challenge for us all is to get as many people across the Australian society to call for it [increase in SG]," she said.
The super fund commissioned research, conducted by Rice Warner Actuaries, which found the average Australian retiring at 65 years old would only have 60 per cent of their equivalent income come retirement based on current SG levels.
The AustralianSuper Retirement Readiness (RRI) Index shows that this equates to 13 years of "comfortable" income levels, with the remainder spent living off the age pension.
But if SG was to increase to 12 per cent, a person retiring at 65 gets an extra 1.7 years of comfortable living.
Those in the 20 to 30-year-old age group have the highest RRI at 68 per cent but more due to the longer time they have to save before they retire.
By contrast, with a retirement age of 67 and an increase in SG to 12 per cent, the RRI for this same group would jump to 92 per cent, according to the research.
