Key Documents
The government is consulting on Treasury Laws Amendment (Measures for Consultation) Bill 2023: AFCA jurisdiction to hear superannuation matters (the draft bill), related to the MetLife v Australian Financial Complaints Authority [2022] FCAFC 173 (MetLife) decision.
The MetLife decision held that AFCA did not have jurisdiction to hear complaints relating to superannuation unless the complaint was specifically listed in section 1053(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).
The complaints listed in section 1053(1) correspond to the jurisdiction of the former Superannuation Complaints Tribunal and the Corporations Act provides AFCA with certain statutory powers in relation to these types of complaints. However, this section was never intended to limit AFCA’s ability to consider other complaints related to superannuation outside of its superannuation jurisdiction.
The bill updates the Corporations Act to expand AFCA's jurisdiction so that it operates as intended:
- complaints specifically listed in section 1053 will be treated as superannuation complaints, and will be subject to the additional provisions set out in Part 7.10A, Division 3;
- other complaints relating to superannuation will be able to be heard in AFCA's non-superannuation jurisdiction.