Sent:	Monday, 29 January 2001 9:25 AM
To:	Super.sen@aph.gov.au
Subject:	Senate Select Committee on Superannuation and Financial Services

I wish to lodge a submission with respect to the Senate Select Committee
on Superannuation.

As a Commonwealth Public Servant planning retirement in the next 5
years I wish to register my interest in the Committee's work and to
notify my concerns that the Committee did not advertise its public
consultation process in the Canberra press.  The members of the
Committee  would be aware that perhaps the greatest concentration of
people with a close interest in its deliberations, reside in Canberra,
and to overlook their input severely compromises its work.

In addition to registering my concerns about the consultation process,
I also wish to bring to the Committee's notice issues relating to public
sector superannuation, in particular the method of indexation used to
calculate the real value of superannuation members' preserved benefits.

The Senate Select Committee members will be aware that Commonwealth
parliamentarians' superannuation arrangements are indexed based on
growth in salaries, rather than the CPI.  The Committee needs to be
aware that retirees spend a greater proportion of income on services and
related outlays and less on the outlays used to measure the CPI.  

Indexation to salary growth is a fairer method for reflecting the real
living standard for retirees' income.  In a "fair-go-for-all" society,
public servants should be treated in the same way as parliamentarians
who clearly understand that retirement income should be indexed to
salary growth.  The current methods for calculating indexation are
inconsistent.

I submit my comments for the attention of the Select committee.

Keith Bailey
37 Fred Williams Crescent
Lyneham  ACT  2602
Monday 29 January 2001