Having shaken up the Reserve Bank, the Albanese government is setting its sights on the Future Fund.
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In August, Australia's sovereign wealth fund delivered a six per cent annual return for the financial year ending June 30, growing to a record $206.1 billion.
The fund was created in 2006 by the Howard government to strengthen the nation's long-term financial position and cover public sector superannuation liabilities.
But it has been expanded to include funds for medical research, drought, disasters, disability care and the Indigenous Land Corporation.
"There's a big opportunity at the Future Fund," Treasurer Jim Chalmers told a Walkley Foundation event in Sydney on Wednesday.
Dr Chalmers noted he was an "institutionalist", valuing the opportunity to work closely with organisation such as the RBA, the Productivity Commission and the Future Fund.
"What I'm trying to do is make all of these institutions the best versions of themselves, and I see the Future Fund the same way," he said.
"There are a bunch of vacancies coming up on the Future Fund board."
Fund chairman and former federal treasurer Peter Costello's five-term is due to end in February 2025.
He was first appointed to the board in December 2009.
Mr Costello's reappointment or the appointment of a new chair, Dr Chalmers said, would be the subject of a "respectful" discussion in the future.
"I'll have a conversation with him. I'll see if he wants to go around again," Dr Chalmers said.
"People might speculate that he might not want to go again, in which case we'll be replacing him with someone great."
Asked whether he would ever consider liquidating the fund to pay down government debt, Dr Chalmers said it was serving a useful purpose.
"You will recognise, but perhaps not everybody recognises, that the fund manages more than the original fund," he said.
"I am starting to think about what does the fund look like in 10 or 20 years' time.
"(But) one of the things I am not contemplating it is liquidating it and paying down debt."
RBA governor Michele Bullock started in her new role this week, as the government works on laws to overhaul its structure and processes.
Australian Associated Press
