Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank all of the members who have contributed to this debate on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Your Future, Your Super) Bill 2021. The Morrison government's Your Future, Your Super package, as has been very well outlined, will implement a number of key recommendations from the Productivity Commission review into superannuation and the royal commission into misconduct in the banking, super and financial services industry, which has also been referred to.

Your Future, Your Super makes the superannuation system better in a range of ways, a number of which have been outlined here today. There are four key ways that it will do so. These changes will prevent the creation of unintended multiple superannuation accounts; empower members by making it easier for them to choose a well-performing product that meets their needs; hold funds to account for underperformance, protecting Australians from poor outcomes and encouraging funds to lower costs and fees to boost Australians' retirement incomes; increase transparency and accountability for our superannuation funds in how they use their members' savings; and, importantly, will save Australians nearly $18 billion over 10 years—saving more of their contributions and ensuring that those contributions are able to be put to use in their retirement, which is what the entire system is for.

This is our next step in what has been a really important process of modernising and improving Australia's superannuation system to make sure it's working harder for the people for whom it has been put in place. There is no doubt, as has been highlighted, that any changes to superannuation are highly contested and highly contentious. But the Morrison government has as our guiding light in this respect the aim of ensuring that members' contributions are absolutely put to the best use for those members and ensuring that the men and women who are entrusted with those funds have as their only key obligation how they can maximise the returns for those Australians. So in that respect it is unusual, in my view, that sensible reforms like this are so highly contested. Contesting changes that will assist everyday Australians—Australians who, in many cases are on low incomes and who have the aspiration of getting to their retirement without having to rely on the government and are therefore relying on their superannuation—to put their savings to work and that place obligations on funds to do is unusual.

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