Couldn’t care less

The SMSF Association National Conference has not been a happy stomping ground for Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones and it would appear he may have completely given up on the experience.

It began when he presented as shadow minister for financial services before the last election. At the time, I had never heard of Jones, but I noted he committed several fundamental errors when he spoke. Firstly, he rattled off a series of sector statistics – a pointless exercise seeing all of the delegates would already have been across that information, but secondly, some of the data he quoted was actually wrong. Surely if you are going to do something like this, at least check your numbers are correct.

Next came last year’s train wreck when he incorporated the beehive conference theme into his speech. Not entirely his fault, but it was perceived the government regards superannuation as a honey pot it just can’t wait to get its hands on.

So this year he decided not to attend the event and instead recorded a short video for delegates. Predictably the message was not groundbreaking or noteworthy in any way, shape or form. And the delegates certainly sent a message to Canberra that unfortunately he didn’t get to see. Just as the video began, attendees started heading for the exits immediately, much like when a football team is consigned to a defeat and supporters want to get a jump on the traffic out of the ground. It is something I have never witnessed before in the 17 consecutive years I have been attending the conference.

Worse still, he now has the dubious honour of being one of the few superannuation ministers, if the not the only one, to have not attended the conference in person. A bad look indicating in many people’s eyes he just couldn’t care less about SMSFs.

The signs of indifference to the sector, and probably the industry as a whole, have been emphasised also with the error, which the legislation for the proposed Division 296 tax. The bill contains an anomaly I have reported on whereby a person who dies on 30 June is caught by the measure while someone who dies on any other day of the year is exempt.

This is clearly a drafting error, which the SMSF Association pointed out in its first submission regarding this policy, and it has made more than one. However, the bill still has not been amended to correct this quirk. It led association chief executive Peter Burgess to question whether any of the politicians actually read any of the industry feedback they receive.

Getting back to the conference, in contrast shadow treasurer Angus Taylor did show up and presented in person and this made a difference just in terms of that perceived care factor. Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t say anything we didn’t expect, but at least he was there.

And none of us are swallowing his criticism of the government without question as the coalition is not averse to poor policy either, dare I mention the transfer balance cap.

But Taylor’s presence exacerbated the perception Jones is not really prepared to even engage with the SMSF space, let alone seriously listen to it, and that spells trouble for all of us.

From the editor - Darin Tyson-Chan

INAUGURAL SMSF ASSOCIATION TRADE MEDIA JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR