Treasury Laws Amendment (Supporting Choice in Superannuation and Other Measures) Bill 2025

Claire Chandler

I move amendment (2) on sheet 3682:

(2) Schedules 1 and 2, page 3 (line 1) to page 6 (line 26), to be opposed.

As foreshadowed in the second reading contributions on this bill, there are some elements of this bill that the coalition is supportive of, and there are others that we are not supportive of. In effect, this amendment on sheet 3682 would remove schedule 1 and schedule 2 from the bill. That is in relation to the superannuation changes proposed in the legislation.

As I said in my second reading contribution—other colleagues also vocalised concerns—we are concerned that the government is rushing elements of this bill too quickly, but we want to provide the opportunity for other sensible aspects of this bill to pass quickly. Industry have made their concerns clear. We fear that the end result of these superannuation changes will be worse outcomes for Australian workers, more duplicate accounts, more fees and worse outcomes for employers attempting to comply with these new requirements on top of their new payday superannuation obligations. As I've said, there are also some parts of this bill that we are in agreement with—those in relation to the tax exemptions associated with hosting the Men's Rugby World Cup, the implementation of the Australia-Portugal tax treaty and the increases to the wine equalisation tax producer rebate cap.

In effect, what this amendment would be seeking to achieve is to remove the sections of the bill that we are not in agreement with and keep the sections of the bill that we are in agreement with. For the ease of the chamber, that is what we are attempting to do here. That does, in effect, mean that, with this amendment, we would be remove schedules 1 and 2, which we find problematic, from this bill.

Anthony Chisholm

The government will be opposing the proposed amendment by Senator Chandler. Schedules 1 and 2 of this bill are important reforms to streamline and safeguard the process for when employees provide their superannuation details to their employer during onboarding.

Australians starting a new job deserve to make an informed choice about their superannuation fund without inappropriate advertising, and schedule 1 provides greater flexibility for employers or their agents to request employees' existing stapled fund details from the ATO earlier in the onboarding process. That way, if a stapled fund exists, the employer can provide those details to the employee during onboarding to help inform their choice of fund. The schedule supports the government's commitment to empower employees to make informed choices by making it easier to see, consider and select their existing super fund when they start a new job, if they choose to do so. Without schedule 1, employees remain in the dark about their existing super fund, increasing the risk of unintended duplicate accounts that can erode retirement savings.

Schedule 2 imposes a ban on advertising superannuation products to employees during onboarding, with certain exemptions. Onboarding is a key moment when employees engage with their superannuation, and they should be able to do so in an informed and safe way. Removing schedule 2 would leave the door open to more cases of inappropriate advertising as uncovered during the government's review of the Your Future, Your Super laws. The review found that some software providers are undermining stapling and directing employees towards advertised products, including those associated with the software provider. The government is committed to stop this inappropriate practice. Schedule 2 will protect employees from being unduly influenced to make uninformed decisions, open inappropriate products and unintentionally create duplicate accounts.

Taken together, these are sensible, important reforms that will streamline and safeguard an employee's superannuation choice during onboarding. Legislating these amendments now is critical to ensure employees are protected as soon as possible and to give employers more timely and accurate superannuation details to support their readiness for the government's payday super reforms. Hence we will be opposing this.

Slade Brockman

The question is that schedules 1 and 2 stand as printed.