Commonwealth legislation providing for choice of superannuation fund has now been in operation since 1 July 2005. This paper explores the extent to which employees have exercised choice in the period immediately following the implementation of fund choice. The data available suggest that choice of fund has had only a modest impact. However, while community awareness of superannuation has increased and the level of member attachment to the main superannuation fund has increased, a downturn in investment returns, and subsequently in member sentiment, could have a significant impact on member preparedness to choose another fund
Although the academy tends not to recognize it, scholars and students from working-class backgrounds are automatically at a disadvantage. To demonstrate both sides of the university experience, I provide here a detailed, personal account of my journey from undergraduate to postgraduate
to post-Ph.D. researcher. I pay special attention to my chosen subject of classics and ancient history, an area of study with its own set of class-based problems ‐ for while those from working-class backgrounds might be (and are) subject to classism in any discipline, the seemingly
inherent elitism of the classics and ancient history field makes it doubly hard for the underprivileged to succeed. I begin by illustrating how ‘working-class knowledge’ of popular culture granted me access into an otherwise closed, exclusionary set of subject materials and go
from here to detail how such work is undervalued by the field, before ending on the violent effects that the all-too-familiar casualized employment structure has on those would-be academics who lack access to family wealth, savings and freedom of opportunity/action. Ultimately, I try to show
how that ‐ no matter how hard you try ‐ if you are from working-class background, you are highly unlikely to succeed in the modern-day academic system.
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