A journalist’s last word on Australian superannuation: Greg Bright’s Our Money in Their Hands
The late Greg Bright
The riveting story of how Australia built one of the world’s premier retirement income systems is the focus of Our Money in Their Hands, an insightful exposé into the country’s superannuation industry.
Authored by the late Greg Bright, a veteran journalist who covered the industry for more than three decades, it tells the fascinating story of the political battles, policy breakthroughs, industry pioneers, and institutions that built a superannuation system consistently rating in the top 10 on the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index.
The book was launched last week in Sydney by Chris Bowen, Australia’s Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy.
Sheridan Lee, CEO of the third-party marketing firm Shed Enterprises who worked for Bright on his first superannuation publication Super Review in the late 1980s, says superannuation today is 150 per cent of the country’s GDP and the most significant pool of savings for most people.
“But as Greg graphically explains, this public benefit that helps relieve the Federal Government of the financial burden of an ageing population while financially empowering people’s retirement, was far from inevitable.
“There were many twists and turns along the away, from the first Wages Accord between the ACTU and the Labor Government in 1983 that sought to include 3% superannuation in all industrial awards to the introduction of the Superannuation Guarantee in 1992 to today’s $4.5 trillion industry.”
She says throughout Bright’s long career as a close observer of the industry, he was always fascinated by the industry’s politics and personalities.
“But he also appreciated it was much more than just an industrial relations or political story. Greg intuitively knew that once compulsory superannuation was introduced in 1992, it would spawn an industry that would drive investments, create jobs, support innovation and drive capital to where it was most needed,” she says.
“He also appreciated it would not only prove a magnet to global fund managers who wanted a slice of this ‘honey pot’, but transform the local industry from a relatively small, institutionally focused business to a major domestic investment industry.”
Lee says the book’s preface aptly explains why Our Money in Their Hands is critical reading for anyone interested in the industry. “It’s a historical reference to superannuation’s coming of age, for the politics of evolution, the visionary people who drove change, and the organisations that had profit and purpose on their minds as the industry evolved.”
She adds that superannuation also fostered a trade media to cover the industry in all its various forms – and Bright was at epicentre of this development.
“As this book demonstrates, he had a genuine devotion to the industry, a passion for its history, and a mastery of storytelling. It’s a fitting tribute to what was a long and storied career,” she says.
Copies of Our Money in Their Hands can be found in bookstores and online, .
