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.
Responding
You can submit responses to this consultation up until 16 June 2023. Interested parties are invited to comment on this consultation.
While submissions may be lodged electronically or by post, electronic lodgement is preferred. For accessibility reasons, please submit responses sent via email in a Word or RTF format. An additional PDF version may also be submitted.
All information (including name and address details) contained in submissions will be made available to the public on the Treasury website unless you indicate that you would like all or part of your submission to remain in confidence. Automatically generated confidentiality statements in emails do not suffice for this purpose. Respondents who would like part of their submission to remain in confidence should provide this information marked as such in a separate attachment.
Legal requirements, such as those imposed by the Freedom of Information Act 1982, may affect the confidentiality of your submission.
View our submission guidelines for further information.
How To Respond
Post
Address written submissions to:
Superannuation Insurance and Governance Unit
Member Outcomes and Governance Branch
Retirement Advice and Investment Division
Treasury
Langton Cres
Parkes ACT 2600