ABSTRACT
Melbourne University Economics Professor Dick Downing argued that only the government had the administrative and legal capacity to insure that superannuation arrangements could be made for workers such as builders’ labourers, ‘who do not fit at all happily into individual employers’ schemes’. The establishment of the Building Unions Superannuation scheme began a process that led to the development of award superannuation. In late 1985, the industrial and political wings of the labour movement had hammered together an agreement that would cement superannuation as a universal feature of Australian employment relations. The Australian system of retirement savings was so comprehensively reformed that it looks visionary compared with the pension arrangements available in many other countries. The retirement savings system that has developed was created for workers in all industries and occupations. But it was mainly achieved in a spirit of social justice and an attempt to ensure that all Australian workers had sufficient resources to achieve financial dignity in their retirement.
