ARIA and Military Super Boards merger

On Tuesday 21 June 2011, the Senate passed the Bills which have brought into effect the merger of ARIA and the Military Super Boards.

There is no change to scheme rules, benefits or entitlements for CSS, PSS and PSSap members.

As of Friday 1 July, you'll start to see ARIA's name change to Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation.

We will keep you updated on any relevant developments through the news section of the website.

Timeline so far

21 June 2011 Bills passed by Parliament.
15 June 2011 Bills passed by the House of Representatives.
24 March 2011 Bills introduced into the House of Representatives.
24 June 2010 Bills not being debated by the Senate – 1 July merger not proceeding.
15 June 2010 Bills introduced into the Senate.
2 June 2010 Bills passed by the House of Representatives.
13 May 2010 Department of Defence announced the nomination of General Peter Cosgrove, AC, MC and Mr John McCullagh as the Australian Defence Force member representative directors on the proposed Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation.
15 March 2010

The Senate Standing Committee recommended that the Bills be passed. Its report concluded that:

  • the proposed reforms do not change member benefits, death and disability benefits or any other entitlements such as indexation of pensions
  • individual Military schemes will remain under their own legislative basis and with their own identity
  • ComSuper will remain responsible for administering the schemes
  • the intent of the legislation is to introduce reforms which will improve governance and administration of both military and civilian superannuation funds.
24 February 2010 The Bills were referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration.
4 February 2010 The Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, introduced the Governance of Australian Government Superannuation Scheme Bill 2010 and Superannuation Legislation (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2010.
22 December 2009 The government announced the appointment of Mr Tony Hyams as the Chairperson to ARIA. Hyams is also Chairperson of the Military Superannuation and Benefits Board of Trustees (MSB Board) and a director of AGEST Super.
26 November 2009 The government announced further reforms to improve the administration arrangements of Australian Government superannuation schemes, including the outsourcing of administration services of PSSap.
31 October 2008 The government announced a package of reforms for its superannuation schemes, including a proposed merger of the Australian Reward Investment Alliance (ARIA), the Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme (MSBS) and the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme (DFRDB) boards. The reforms focus on streamlining governance and administration arrangements, and will not impact members’ super benefits. Each of the schemes will retain their own legislative framework which determines members’ benefits and entitlements.