Ex-Reserve boss on track with industry funds
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday August 22, 2009
IT HAS been a good week for Bernie Fraser €“ but it was a couple of metres from being really good.In the steady drizzle at the Canberra races yesterday, Magpie Speak €“ bred, fed and trained by the former governor of the Reserve Bank €“ rounded the bend second last, accelerated hard and was beaten by a neck.If the race had been 10 metres longer it would have won.Mr Fraser, the central bank chief from 1989 to 1996 and the face of industry super funds, is still a big deal in the world of money through his heavy involvement in not-for-profit funds.But for the past decade he has been able to combine his board seats with a sideline in breeding and training racehorses fromhis property just outside Queanbeyan."Paul Keating, he and I used to debate works of art," said Mr Fraser, who famously lifted interest rates to 17 per cent when Mr Keating was treasurer. "He liked French clocks. I thought horses were real works of art."At Thoroughbred Park in Canberra yesterday Mr Fraser's first runner, Magpie Speak, was a little unlucky.After not racing for a good four months, the gelding started slow, made his move on the outside just after the bend, but was pipped at the line."My father was a punter, which should have been a good enough reason to get as far away from horses as possible," Mr Fraser said.But race day gets the juices flowing. "I played a lot of sport as a younger person. I'm a fairly competitive person, but now my legs don't run."Mr Fraser had a more clear-cut win on Thursday when the first official league table of superannuation funds showed his industry funds outperforming their for-profit competitors."The industry funds have done really well," he said."Partly it is because our fees are lower and we don't pay commissions. But I think it is more than that. We're very considered in our investments, and don't feel the pressure to buy in-house investment products."On the economy, Mr Fraser thinks things could still take another turn for the worse."The Government has done a pretty good job, but in a way it's done the easy bit in stimulating the economy. The hard bit's making the infrastructure program work, and delivering a good tax system. They're the two next big hurdles."On his next runner, Arm And A Leg in the eighth, Mr Fraser was even more circumspect."She's had a few injuries. I'm not sure how she'll go."She finished nowhere.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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