Dr Cameron Murray – author of Game of Mates and occasional MB contributor – has estimated that the number of people employed in the superannuation industry, as well as its cost, rivals that of Australia’s total armed forces. Dr Murray also claims that superannuation concessions cost the federal budget as much as the Aged Pension system. From The Australian:
Since 2012 the number of jobs in the super sector has climbed steadily from 48,000 to 55,200 in 2018, while the number of permanent defence force personnel has flatlined around 58,000, according to analysis by Dr Cameron Murray, an economist at the University of Sydney.
“Super fees in 2018 were $34bn, compared to $36bn for the total defence force, but that figure includes a 19,000 strong defence bureaucracy and army reservists,” he said, adding it was “madness to waste vast economic resources on an unnecessary accounting exercise”…
