Australian Government Future Fund

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The Australian Government Future Fund is an independently managed investment fund into which the Australian Government deposits its budget surplus. The purpose of the fund is to meet the government's future liabilities for the payment of superannuation to retired public servants. The fund's investment decisions are supposed to be made at arm's length from the executive.

The stated aim of the fund is to hold AUD $140 billion by 2020^[1]; this figure would free up AUD $7 billion in superannuation payments each year from the federal budget.

Seed capital of AUD $18 billion was deposited into the fund on May 5, 2006, and was derived from government surpluses and the income from the sale of a third of Telstra in its ongoing privatisation.^[2]

The fund received a significant boost when the Australian Government transferred their remaining 17% stake in Telstra, valued at AUD $8.9 billion, into the fund on February 28, 2007.^[3] This contribution, combined with other transfers, will push the fund to over AUD $50 billion by the end of the 2006-2007 financial year.

In March 2007 the opposition Labor party announced it would withdraw AUD $2.7 billion from the future fund to finance a broadband initiative across Australia; this proposal prompted government ministers to proclaim that Labor intented to "raid" the future fund for their own means.^[4]