National Superannuation - reflections on the birth of an idea
Bill Kelty at the graduation ceremony: an idea that this University can rightfully own.
For seventeen years until February 2000 Bill Kelty – then Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions – strode the national stage, a key player in industrial relations, re-shaping economic policy and superannuation reform.
As a prologue and coda he appeared on stage at La Trobe University; first briefly as a graduate in Economics in 1969 and then, in April this year, when he returned to deliver the occasional address to some 230 graduates at their award ceremony.
'I have in essence three things to say,' he told the graduates, their families and friends. 'First, the significance to me of this University and its teachers; second, the case for bravery and the cost of meekness; third, never give up the enthusiasm and spirit of youth.'
Mr Kelty said he came to La Trobe not just because it was close to his home 'but because I believed that it could give greater opportunity to working class kids, of which I was proudly one'.
'This University gave to me the greatest gift of all – access to the two finest teachers of my life – Professor Donald Whitehead in Economics and Professor Ross Martin in Politics.
He described Professor Martin, who taught at La Trobe for nearly forty years and is now a friend, as 'Australia's best student and teacher of trade unions, recognised for his expertise in many countries'.
'Ross did not have to make trade unions interesting for me because I was interested for some time, but he gave me a greater dimension to their activities: understand their history, analyse the reasons for the decisions, and know the conflicts, their purposes, their ideals.'
Mr Kelty said Donald Whitehead was 'the very last person I would have expected to be in awe of, as he was an adviser to the Liberal Party and the Employers' Association. I was on the opposite side, Labor Party since 16, with a burning ambition to work for the trade unions'.
'He taught me the fundamental process of applying logic to the process of analysis (to) think about each issue from a number of perspectives. However, at no stage did he discourage me from having a passionate belief and an ideal.' Mr Kelty said Donald Whitehead was 'an important figure, even in this University a little understated and understood'.
'All ideas have a genesis – someone stokes up the genesis of an idea. There are others who set it alight.'
Professor Whitehead.
Fourth largest fund management business
'Today Australia has a national superannuation system – nine per cent of people's earnings as a minimum go into superannuation. It has meant that we have spawned the fourth largest fund management business in the world. Some commentators would regard it as one of the world's best and worth emulating in the USA . The Chinese are keen on it.
'People have been kind enough to suggest that it is the result of the partnership between the ACTU and government – and particularly Paul Keating and me.
'Let me take you to Donald Whitehead's Stagflation and Wages Policy in Australia, published in 1973, but first discussed between 1967 and 1969.
'It is not by chance that Gary Weaven (former assistant ACTU secretary now executive chair of Industry Fund Services), Ian Court (chair of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees) and myself all went to La Trobe – all were involved in the creation and maintenance of superannuation.
'We merely set alight the fire. The idea had been stoked. This is an idea that this University can rightfully own. Some own a literary masterpiece, others own a scientific discovery. This University owns superannuation.'
- Mr Kelty – who was awarded a 'Companion of the Order of Australia' in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours List – has also been a member of the National Labour Consultative Council, Director of the Reserve Bank and a Director of the Superannuation Trust of Australia. He is a Director of Hotel Leisure Tourism Trust of Australia and of Linfox, an AFL Commissioner and a member of Australians for Just Refugee Programs.
Professor Donald Whitehead's memory lives on at the main Melbourne campus at Bundoora where a building named in his honour houses the School of Business.