Super giants spent $400m of retirement funds on marketing as CFMEU, associates pocket savings

Australia’s superannuation are spending more than $400 million of members’ savings on marketing each year, with big beneficiaries including sporting clubs and the crisis-hit CFMEU.

Information released by the Federal regulator on Wednesday revealed that the giant industry fund AustralianSuper was by far the biggest marketing spender in the 2022-23 financial year, forking out a total of $60.2m on promotional work.

This included $43m of what AustralianSuper said was advertising or marketing, with $7.4m going to search engine giant Google, and $16.9m of member funds on member campaigns — including $6.3m spent through lobby group Industry Super Australia.

CBUS’ $34.7m marketing spend included more than $2.3m of sponsorship of related unions and industry groups, including $233,055 pumped into the CFMEU’s controversial Victorian division and a total of almost $800,000 sent to the union across Australia

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has released the detailed breakdown of super fund spending as part of attempts to improve the transparency of groups managing around $3 trillion of retirement savings.

The Queensland-based industry fund giant Australian Retirement Trust was the second biggest marketing spender, with a spend of $41.8m.

Industry funds Hesta, HostPlus and Aware Super all spent more than $30m on marketing.

HostPlus handed over $1.8m of member savings to pay for its sponsorship deal with the AFL and $1.3 million for its sponsorship of the battling Gold Coast Suns.