Kingpins - the old defined benefit plans were funded by employees at about 5% of salary, and the benefit was a % of final salary index linked for life. I can assure you that 5% is not sufficient to pay for this. The balance and all the risk was held by Government - there never was a pot of Gold, the difference was paid for out of the general taxation / debt.
Since the old DPB were stopped and the members gradually die, then newer employees have to join accumulation funds. Very similar to any other employee. Some public sector employees retain DBP - politicians and Judges for instance.
The big exception is the Future Fund, which at the time of being set up was mandated to invest a % in a various funds e.g.infrastructure.
'The purpose of the Australian Government Future Fund is to fully fund the future superannuation payments of public servants, which currently come from the federal budget.'
The Future Fund has a reasonable track record to date.
Date(31 Dec) Total funds(billions) Notes 1 2008 A$59.62
[22] 2 2009 [23] 3 2010 [24] 4 2011 A$89.39
[25] 5 2012 [26] 6 2013 [27] 7 2014 [28]
