The federal government will give a formal response to the landmark Cooper superannuation review within weeks.

Expressing strong support of some of the review's more controversial recommendations, Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen told an Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia briefing that MySuper and SuperStream ''make a lot of commonsense''.

He, along with review chairman Jeremy Cooper, yesterday promoted the proposed revisions to key industry players in Melbourne.

The review of the $1.3 trillion superannuation industry recommends low-cost MySuper funds as compulsory default funds for superannuation investors, and a process called SuperStream which involves a wider use of electronic records to slash costs.

After further talks with the industry, the Financial Services Minister plans to deliver an early response on the recommendations of the year-long Cooper review ''over coming weeks''.

''I understand that the government needs to provide some direction and certainty so the industry can go forward with some sense of confidence,'' he said.

''A formal response will be made over the next two months.''
Mr Bowen said the predicted decline in fees for fund members would be tantamount to giving a 1 percentage point boost to super contributions on top of the plan to lift the minimum employer contribution rate to 12 per cent by 2014.

Mr Cooper rejected criticism from retail funds lobby, Investment and Financial Services Association that MySuper was a ''paternalistic'' idea.

The concept of a compulsory pension system was of itself ''paternalistic'', Mr Cooper said.

''What we have is a market-based solution to this paternalistic idea. It's a policy system that is entirely outsourced to the private sector. We want to ensure it is administered efficiently and in the interests of members.''

According to him, while industry funds and some low-cost funds had traits similar to MySuper, they were ''not all the way there'', primarily because they were not default funds.

''Super has to work for people who are, for one reason or another, not interested in the product,'' he said.