What is the purpose of superannuation?

By its sheer size, at $3.5 trillion in 2023, superannuation touches on many salient legal areas. These include the changing nature of work, the evolving funds management industry and climate change. But so often, these individual areas are not brought together in any cohesive way.

The Melbourne Law School Centre for Commercial Law, the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law and Melbourne Climate Futures are pleased to invite you to a seminar on the purpose of superannuation, with guest speaker and AustralianSuper chair Dr Don Russell.

Don is chair of AustralianSuper, and deputy chair of the Board of the Centre for Policy Development. Until March 2017, he was Chief Executive of the South Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet. In addition to various senior positions in the public and private sectors, Don worked as an advisor to Paul Keating as Treasurer and then Prime Minister, when the national superannuation legislation was introduced.

This seminar is the first of its kind at MLS, bringing together academics from commercial law, climate law and employment law together to consider the objective, but also the purpose of superannuation from different legal perspectives, and highlight potential areas of collaboration and opportunities for further reform.

The event will be facilitated by Dr Emily Millane, a director of Impact Economics and Senior Fellow at the MLS and convenor of Superannuation Law and Policy in the Melbourne Law Masters.

Speakers

Dr Don Russell

Don is Chair of AustralianSuper, and Deputy Chair of the Board of the Centre for Policy Development. Until March 2017, he was Chief Executive of the South Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet. Until September 2013, Dr Russell was the Secretary of the Federal Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.

Between 1993 and 1995 Don served as Australia's Ambassador to the USA in Washington. In addition to various senior positions in the public and private sectors, Don worked as an advisor to Paul Keating as Treasurer and then Prime Minister, when the national superannuation legislation was introduced.

Associate Professor Tess Hardy

Associate Professor Tess Hardy is Director of the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law at Melbourne Law School. Her research mainly focuses on labour regulation and enforcement, and its intersection with business regulation more broadly. Prior to joining academia, Tess was a private practitioner based in Melbourne, Tokyo and Hong Kong, advising principally in the area of work law. Tess is an editor of the Australian Journal of Labour Law and has previously been a consultant to the International Labour Organisation.

Dr Arjuna Dibley

Dr. Arjuna Dibley is Head of the Sustainable Finance Hub and a Senior Research Associate at Melbourne Climate Futures and an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Oxford’s Smith School for Enterprise and Environment.

Arj is an expert in environmental law and economics. He advises governments, financial institutions, companies, philanthropists, and not-for-profits on various aspects of climate law, economics and sustainable finance. He is a Board Member and Company Secretary of Environmental Justice Australia, a Board Member of CarbonPlan and a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Development.

Arj has a doctorate in climate change law and economics from Stanford University, which he earned as a General Sir John Monash Scholar, and undergraduate degrees in law and Asian studies from the Australian National University.

Dr Emily Millane

Emily is an expert on superannuation law, regulation and policy, with over ten years’ experience in the field. She is a director at Impact Economics and Policy.

She has worked in a range of roles in law, public policy and consulting, including as a Senior Associate at Grattan Institute and as Research Fellow at the ANU's Tax and Transfer Policy Institute. Emily holds a PhD from the Australian National University and degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Melbourne. She is writing a book on the politics of Australian superannuation.