Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 has been a long time coming for people on my side of politics. This bill is common sense. This bill will be welcome news to all Australian workers. For businesses doing the right thing: keep doing what you're doing. This bill will have minimal impact on you, because it's not about you, the businesses that pay their employees super on time. This is about giving tools to the employers that might get a bit caught up and accidentally not pay on time, or the employers or businesses for whom not paying super on time has become part of their business model or who are unable to pay super on time.

It is a fact in this country that far too many workers go without super. Along the way, some in business in Australia have not accepted that super is not their money but their employees' money. Many, many years ago, this parliament, with the support of industry and the trade union movement, agreed to set up the superannuation industry. Today, it is worth billions upon billions of dollars, safeguarding savings for Australian workers for their retirement. It was founded on that fundamental principle: super is employees' pay. They defer collecting it, and it is kept in safeguard by superannuation accounts until they retire, but essentially it is their pay. They have earnt it.

As I stated at the beginning, the majority of businesses do the right thing. I acknowledge that. They put the pay aside and pay super. All of us in this place receive super on time, as do employees of the Parliamentary Service. The majority of businesses do the right thing and pay super on time. Advancement of technology has made it so much easier for our small businesses. The ATO already supports businesses using the Single Touch Payroll data system to ensure workers are paid super on time. This is how the ATO will enforce the legislation that is before us.

What we are proposing in this legislation is that, from 1 July 2026, employers will be required to pay superannuation guarantee contributions on the same day as wages instead of quarterly, aligning, for the first time, your regular pay with your regular super payment. Employers must ensure that contributions are received by an employees' super fund within seven days of payday. This change will make it easier for employees to track their super. It will ensure that they earn on their savings but also ensure that employers have the ability to manage cash flow.

I know those opposite like to claim that people in Labor don't understand small business. It is just a falsehood. We do, many people on this side of the House being small business owners themselves or having close connections with families through small business. I myself grew up in a family of small business. I can remember the work my parents did managing cash flow in the running of their small businesses, a second-hand furniture business and then a holiday hire company.

Cash flow with small business has always been king, and the ability to manage cash flow is critical, so I can understand why some small businesses, that are so focused on the day-to-day running of their business and delivering the goods and services, can sometimes get caught out with that super bill. Have they put enough aside? That is why this reform will help them. The Australian tax office and the Treasurer have already committed to supporting businesses to adapt to this system and manage their super. There will be a way in place, working with chambers of commerce and with the ATO, to ensure small businesses can transition to this system.

Those who will not like this bill are those businesses who are doing the wrong thing, undermining all of us, undermining the businesses doing the right thing and ripping off their workers—the ones who build that into their business model: the phoenixers, the people who will go and undercut or underquote another small business because they bank on never having to pay their super bill.

Before coming to this place, my background was working for the United Workers Union, in their cleaning and security divisions. Time and time again we saw dodgy cleaning companies and security companies undercutting someone who did the right thing by their workers—paid them properly—and then phoenixing at the point when the ATO chased them for unpaid super. Those workers would lose their jobs. The company would go into bankruptcy and would phoenix. The workers would lose their super. Through the Fair Entitlement Guarantee and, before that, GEERS, we would try to manage payment of what they were owed. The ATO, of course, would miss out on payments, and whilst, quite often, through the federal government-backed scheme, we could recover annual leave, they lost their sick leave and they lost their super. It was just accepted that you would not get that super.

This changes that. It catches out those businesses early and it will help break that phoenixing model that exists. It will be a game changer for those service based industries, such as cleaning and security and so many others, where wages are a critical part of the competitive tender. But, most importantly, apart from helping to create fair competition in those industries so businesses can compete against businesses on quality, not on the fact that you'll rip off super from your employees, those employees who've done that hard work and who might have been paid their weekly, fortnightly or monthly wages will also know that their super is being paid.

Since the creation of super, far too many people in our history have missed out on super, and many people in this place have shared those stories. Quite often it was when they were younger and they worked in hospitality or in a retail business, in those early days—and in those early days of super too. Quite often, when I'm talking to people in my electorate, I talk about my generation being the generation of super. Like so many others, I started working at 14 and nine months—legitimately, of course. I worked in my family's businesses. When you're working in a family business, it's a little bit of pocket money for those hours that you do when you're in the truck helping your dad with the deliveries or helping with the till. But I was 14 and nine months when I got my first job, and it was early days.

My generation, the people now in their 40s and 30s, will have a working life of super when they retire. Technically, for when it is planned, we should have enough to retire on. But far too many people in their 30s and 40s missed out on those early days of super because we didn't have the system set up. It was paid quarterly, and not all businesses did the right thing and put it aside. And there was the phoenixing that I talked about.

One of the reasons I got actively involved in the union movement was that I was one of those young workers at university who didn't get paid their super. I was being paid cash, and I said: 'Hey, this isn't right. I've got a pay slip here, but there's no super on it.' It was only when I started to ask questions that I discovered I actually wasn't being paid properly. There was something really dodgy going on with my pay slip. I got sacked because I was a casual worker, and I brought that up. But the bar didn't want to have a bar of it. So that was one of the reasons why I started to get actively involved in my union. I was one of those young workers who said: 'I should be getting pay slips. I've got this dodgy thing that doesn't look like a pay slip. Where's my super?' That is the experience of far too many young people. Even with all the advances in technology, where we're at today, this is still happening. This bill will change that.

This bill will ensure that super, for the first time since its creation, will be paid on payday. From 21 July 2026, employers will be required to pay super guarantee contributions on the same day as wages. The changes will make it easier for businesses, easier for employees, and easier for the ATO to detect missing payments earlier—before debts become unrecoverable and before some businesses are unable to pay. The legislation also updates the super guarantee charge, which is the penalty employers face if they fail to pay super on time. Under the new framework, the super guarantee charge will apply for each payday an employer fails to pay super in full and on time. The updated super guarantee charge includes national earnings, administrative uplift and choice loading as well as a number of other ways to help ensure that employers pay on time.

As I said before, this isn't just a great advancement and support for employees, to make sure that they get what they're owed. For those industries where wages are a big part of competition, it helps to ensure an equal playing field so employers who are doing the right thing are not disadvantaged in the market because of employers doing the wrong thing. It's something that's quite often forgotten in this debate. They think it's about employees versus employers, but it's not. It's about employees and good employers having the opportunity to compete in a fair playing field on the very fundamental that is their wages. This is what they've earned.

I'm reminded, as I stand in this debate, of all the heartbreaking cases that have come into my office and into all of our offices. People ask, 'I realised too late I didn't get paid my super; what can I do?' Standing in this place, I have to acknowledge Meryl Birch. She and her brother first came to see me when I first got elected. Her's is a legacy case that goes back to the previous two federal members for Bendigo. They knew her brother wasn't being paid super. They tried to pursue it, to get the money owed to her brother, and it never came. They went through the ATO, and they pursued the business. When the business eventually went bankrupt, they tried to get the money any way they could. It never came. She continues to try to get justice for her brother—even though he has, sadly, passed away—because it is money that he earned as part of his wages. He never got that money because it was deferred.

If this had been in place from the inception of super, then Meryl may have never had to go through this. Her brother may have been able to enjoy his retirement with his retirement savings, through super, that he would have earned. Meryl and her brother are just one example of the countless cases that we have all seen come through unpaid super and the impact it has on people's lives and their retirements.

Then there are the hundreds of thousands of other people who have just written it off: 'It doesn't matter; I've written it off. I can't cry over what I can't fix.' This reform will be a game changer for workers. It will ensure that every dollar they've earnt in their super will be there when they retire. It will make it easier for business to be able to pay on time and equal the playing field, disrupting the way in which the dodgy ones use it as part of their business model to phoenix. In construction, cleaning, security and other service based industries, it is real.

I'm proud to be part of a government that is making this reform happen, and I am ready and willing to work with our local small businesses to make sure they're aware of the changes they need to make to ensure they're ready for this. We can make this happen so it is a win-win for all. Ultimately, it's good for workers, it's good for businesses and it's good for the future.

Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025. This is a bill that represents the Labor Party and the union movement at its best. It's a bill that supports working people, women and older Australians. It's a bill that builds a system and a country that is fair, that is just and that supports people to live a life of dignity. That is what the Australian Labor Party is about: working hard, looking after one another and assuring that everyone, not just the wealthy, can live that life with dignity.

One of the key ways that the Australian Labor Party has supported this vision for our society is through the mighty superannuation system. Superannuation is one of the proudest achievements of the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Labor movement. It is the absolute embodiment of a simple but powerful idea: that after a lifetime of work, every Australian deserves dignity, independence and financial security in their retirement. Let me tell you this: it did not come easily. Superannuation wasn't handed down by very generous employers. No, it was fought for, tooth and nail. It was envisaged to be part of that great idea of the social wage. This was a view and a vision of the Hawke-Keating era and of that great trade unionist Bill Kelty. It was established along with other great measures of the social wage like Medicare, another great implementation that we are incredibly proud of on this side of the House.

In the 1980s, unions and the Hawke and Keating Labor governments came together to tackle one of the great injustices of our economy: that only the wealthiest Australians could have a decent retirement. At that time, it was only a small percentage of Australians—and, I've got to say, mostly men—in fairly high-paying jobs that had any form of superannuation at all. These superannuation funds were run by their employees. They were industry based and all run under different legislation and different rules. We wanted that to be uniform and available to everyone, and, through bold Labor reform, that changed. The introduction of universal compulsory superannuation in 1992 transformed our entire economy. It definitely transformed the lives of millions of Australians. It extended the promise of a decent retirement to women, casual workers, people in low-paid jobs and those who were too often left behind. It established the three pillars of retirement: the pension, superannuation and personal savings. Today, the superannuation industry holds trillions of dollars in superannuation savings that belong to the workers of this country. That's not just an extraordinary asset. It's a testament to the power of a collective vision, to hard work and, yes, to sacrifice.

Many people might forget that at the establishment of the superannuation industry, workers forewent a three per cent pay rise in one year to establish their funds, putting that hard-earned money, or that hoped-for pay rise, not directly into their pockets that year to spend but into a superannuation fund that would grow with compound interest—that amazing thing—over their working lives to give them a decent retirement. Some of these workers were very low paid, so foregoing a three per cent pay rise was actually a great sacrifice to them.

Not everybody supported the concept. Definitely, I would say people on the conservative side of politics and a lot of employers did not support it, but neither did a lot of people on the progressive side, including some workers and some unions. They thought that that money was better off going directly into the pockets of workers and not into a fund. So there was a lot of debate and a lot of discussion about establishing the superannuation industry. But thanks to union legends like the great Tom McDonald—the late Tom McDonald, I'm sad to say. He was the national secretary of the Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia at the time. He believed passionately that superannuation was going to be one of the most important assets that workers could have. He ran an amazing campaign with his building workers at the time to convince them that this was a good idea. He did that. He held a members meeting one day, and they voted to forego their pay rise to establish their superannuation fund. And when the Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia got that over the line with their members, other unions followed. It was an amazing beginning. Tom McDonald went on to be a great supporter of the superannuation industry, and I'd like to acknowledge his contribution today.

Superannuation has made Australia one of the most secure retiree nations in the world. But, like any system, we know it can always be improved. There's always more work to do. It seems that those on the other side want to spend a great deal of their time tearing down some of our great institutions. We know what they've tried to do to Medicare over the decades and over time. We've heard that many times in this House. They have constantly launched attacks on our superannuation system. They seem to think that it is an absolute anathema that workers should accrue such capital. Even more offensive to them is that workers have control of that capital. You see, workers sit on industry superannuation fund boards and are part of a very important governance structure of that industry. When I was president of the ACTU—and, indeed, secretary of the nurses' union—we fought off attack after attack from conservative governments on that system.

We on this side of the House are in absolute agreement that we need to build on these systems. That's why, in the last term of government, the Albanese Labor government expanded paid parental leave to include the payment of superannuation, to ensure people who take time away from work for parental leave don't miss out on lost super. And, my goodness, it will go a long way to closing that gender pay gap.

That's why we are here today. We know that too many workers are missing out. They're missing out because some employers only pay super once a quarter or, worse, fall behind all together. When super isn't paid every payday, workers lose out on the compound interest that makes super so powerful. It's their money, earned through their labour, and it should be in their account when they're paid, not months later. In addition to this, quarterly payments make it harder for workers to track what they're owed, and it's easier for those dodgy employers—and I want to make the point that there are not many of them, but there are some out there—to delay or avoid paying super at all. In fact, the Australian Taxation Office estimates that $5.2 billion in super went unpaid in 2021-22 alone. That's $100 million every week that workers earned but never received, $100 million that should have gone to support their retirement, $100 million a week that would have supported them to live their lives with dignity.

This issue isn't impacting the top of the town. It disproportionately affects younger workers and those in insecure work. These are people who can least afford to miss out on their retirement savings. These are the people who the Australian Labor Party is here, proudly, to support today with this legislation. People like my stepdaughter, who worked casually in hospitality, like so many people young people have done and still do. She would check her pay packet regularly. She just happened to see there was a super payment there, but didn't really take much notice of what was in her super account. It became apparent that she had not been paid her super for years. She worked for the one employer; she trusted him and he let her down. For three to four years he'd put no superannuation in her account at all. When we discovered this, she alerted her fellow employees and, just as the previous speaker my good friend the member for Bendigo said, the employer went bankrupt and disappeared. He had no money to pay what was owed to those employees. This is a story that we've heard time and time again.

I'm very proud to say that, years later, my stepdaughter is a mum, she has a good career and she is also a union delegate. One of the things she is absolutely fiercely passionate about is making sure that all her fellow employees know how to check their super and make sure they're getting paid. Labor believes super should be paid on payday, just like wages. It's a simple idea that makes a big difference, ensuring every dollar workers earn works for them straight away. It's why the Albanese Labor government is introducing this bill, and why I am speaking so passionately in support of it.

This legislation is a once-in-a-generation reform to fix unpaid super, and from 1 July 2026 employers will be required to pay superannuation guarantee contributions at the same time as wages. Employers must ensure that contributions are received by the employees super fund within seven business days of payday. This change will make it easier for employees to track their super, and for the ATO to detect missed payments earlier, before debts become unrecoverable—this is a critical part of this legislation. It also updates the superannuation guarantee charge, which is the penalty employers face when they fail to pay super on time, because failing to pay working people what they are owed is not okay.

Under the new framework, the super guarantee charge will apply for each payday an employer fails to pay super in full and on time. The updated super guarantee charge includes notional earnings, and this compensates employees for the investment returns they missed out on due to late payment; an administrative uplift, which is an additional charge to reflect the cost of enforcement and to incentivise voluntary rectification; and choice loading, an additional penalty if the employer fails to pay into the employee's chosen fund. Employers who continue not to pay, even after the ATO has raised an SG charge, will face higher penalties of up to 50 per cent of the unpaid amount. These changes are designed to prompt employers to fix mistakes quickly and ensure workers are fairly compensated when employers fall short. If employers want to avoid these penalties, all they need to do is the right thing and make sure workers get paid their super on time into the right account with the right amount.

Superannuation is a vehicle for fairness, for long-term investment and for nation building. We're incredibly proud of our superannuation industry. I think around $4 trillion is now held in assets for workers in this country. That is amazing money that is being invested in infrastructure, in health care, in all sorts of things that make this nation better.

But we must always remain vigilant. We can't listen to those opposite who, every few years, try again and again to undermine the superannuation industry. Labor will always defend superannuation, because we know what it stands for: fairness, security and shared prosperity. The story of superannuation is a story about what Labor does best. We take good ideas and we make them universal. We don't just look after a few; we build systems that lift everyone up, and we improve those systems as time goes on.

And that's what we'll keep doing. We'll keep defending the superannuation system for the workers who rely on it. We'll keep strengthening it. We'll keep defending it when it's under attack. And we will keep ensuring that the next generation of Australians can look forward to a retirement with dignity, built on those three pillars. They will have a retirement that is not uncertain and precarious but one built on security and dignity, knowing that they have worked hard all their life to achieve it, and that is exactly what will happen.

Trish Cook (Bullwinkel, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today in strong support of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025. This isn't just a minor administrative tweak; this isn't just another line in the budget paper. This is a fundamental reform to the bedrock of our retirement system. It is a promise to Australian workers that the money they earn, the money they're entitled to, will actually end up in their superannuation accounts. It's a reform that is long overdue.

Before Labor, superannuation was not a right. It was a privilege, and it was reserved for a select few in high-paying jobs—mostly men—while the majority of working Australians, especially women and blue-collar workers, were left with nothing but the age pension. It was unsustainable. It was the Labor Party, through the grand social and economic bargain of the Prices and Incomes Accord under the Hawke government, that laid the foundation. And it was the Keating Labor government that built the house, legislating the landmark superannuation guarantee in 1992.

Today's superannuation is the result of Labor's vision to turn a privilege for the few into a universal right for every worker. We built this system, now the envy of the world, and ever since its creation superannuation has been a defining fault line in Australian politics. Those opposite have consistently sought to undermine it, freezing the rate for years and treating super as a nest egg to be cracked open for other purposes. Labor's job has always been to build, strengthen and protect this legacy. This bill is a proud and critical continuation of that nation-building project.

But here is the problem. The Australian Taxation Office estimates that, in the 2021-22 financial year alone, $5.2 billion in super went unpaid because the employer either failed to pay the super or paid it quarterly. Let's pause on that number: $5.2 billion. That is $100 million every single week that Australian workers earned but never received. It's not a rounding error; it's a retirement crisis in the making if we don't fix it. It is wage theft, plain and simple. And it is a theft that disproportionately hurts the most-vulnerable in our workforce: younger workers who are just starting out, workers in lower-income jobs, and those in the gig economy or in insecure work. These are the very people who can least afford to have their retirement savings stolen from under them. The long-term impact is devastating.

Before I entered this place I was a small-business owner. I ran a small business for 10 years in my electorate of Bullwinkel, employing occupational health and safety nurses for remote area healthcare centres. So I know what it's like to manage a payroll. I know what it's like to balance cash flow in order to meet your obligations and to deal with the pressures of running a business. I know it's possible to do the right thing by your staff. I made the decision in my business to pay my staff's superannuation monthly, not quarterly. I did it when I paid their wages. First and foremost, it was their money. They had earned it and they deserved to have it paid into their accounts promptly, where it could start working for them by the magic of compound interest. I also did it because it was simply good business practice. It never meant I had a large looming superannuation liability building up, waiting to ambush my cash flow at the end of the quarter. It integrated super into my regular fortnightly payroll processes and kept my books clean, with obligations clear.

This legislation doesn't punish small businesses; it levels the playing field. It aligns the law with what is good and responsible business, small and large, what is good practice and what many already do. It ends a system that allows unscrupulous employers to use their employees' superannuation entitlements as a cheap short-term loan to prop up their own failing cash flow.

This bill is simple. From 1 July 2026 employers will be required to pay superannuation guarantee contributions at the same time as their wages. It's incredibly reasonable and incredibly fair. The benefits of this are immediate and profound. First, for employees it makes it easier for them to track their super—no more trying to cross-reference with a payslip from July when the super fund statement is in October and wondering where the money is. They will see the payment on their payslip, and within seven business days they will see it land in their super fund. It gives them visibility and power. Second, for enforcement this bill allows the ATO to detect missed payments earlier before the debts become unrecoverable.

This brings me to the new strengthened superannuation guarantee charge. This is the penalty employers face for failing to pay on time. Under this new framework the charge will apply for each payday that an employer fails to pay in full and on time. This new charge is designed to be tough but fair. It includes notional earnings to compensate employees for the investment returns they lose because of a late payment; an administration uplift to reflect the cost of enforcement—and, importantly, this uplift can be reduced for employers who put their hands up voluntarily and disclose an honest mistake; and choice loading, which is an additional penalty if the employer fails to pay into the employee's chosen fund. For those employers who still refuse to pay even after the ATO has raised a SG charge, the penalties will be higher—up to 50 per cent of the unpaid amount. These charges are designed to prompt employers to fix mistakes fast and ensure workers are made whole.

I know some in the business community will be concerned about the transition, and I want to address that directly. This is not a gotcha campaign. The enforcement of the reform is smart, modern and data driven. The ATO will use its data it already receives from Single Touch Payroll and match it with data from the super funds. This allows for near-real-time detection of missed payments. It's not about creating new red tape; it's about using existing data more intelligently to protect workers. This data matching allows the ATO to intervene early, reducing the risk of those massive unpayable debts building up.

This government is backing the reform with a $404 million commitment to support the implementation. Critically, the ATO will adopt a facilitative compliance approach in the first year. Employers who are making a genuine attempt to comply, even if they face technical hurdles, will not be the target of ATO compliance actions. This is about helping employers like myself to get it right, not catching them out. This reform helps employers by aligning super with their regular payroll cycle, reducing the end-of-quarter administrative burdens.

Finally, I want to address the urgency of this legislation. This legislation must pass as soon as possible. The start date of 1 July 2026 is necessary to give the entire ecosystem time to prepare. Employers need to update their systems, payroll providers need to build and test new software, and super funds and the ATO need to finalise their data-matching and reporting infrastructure.

This is a massive, once-in-a-generation reform which cannot wait. The longer we delay, the more workers are missing out. Every week we wait, another $100 million in super goes unpaid. This bill is pro worker, it's pro good business, it protects the vulnerable, it simplifies administration for responsible employers, and it closes a $5.2 billion gap of systemic wage theft. Let's get this done; let's fix unpaid super for good. This reform continues Labor's proudest legacy—ensuring that every Australian worker can build a dignified retirement. I commend the bill to the House.

Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I would like to thank all those members who have contributed to this debate. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 and related bill reflect the government's commitment to a stronger superannuation system, which will ensure a dignified retirement for all Australians. The payday superannuation bill will require super contributions to be paid at the same frequency as wages, which will benefit the retirement income of around 8.9 million Australian workers. The bill will help to address the problem of unpaid super, which is putting the retirement outcomes of millions of Australians at risk every year.

The ATO has estimated that around $5.2 billion in super went unpaid in 2021-2022. That's around $100 million every week that workers earned but never received. In the current quarterly system, unpaid super is occurring too often and for too long. Through this bill, employees will benefit from more frequent contributions that compound over their working life. Employees will be able to more quickly recognise when they are missing contributions that they are owed and the Australian Taxation Office will be better equipped to enforce the law and recover unpaid super earlier. This will help to avoid unpaid super building up for employers and limit the amount of super that never gets recovered. Unpaid super disproportionately affects younger workers and those in insecure work; these are the people who can least afford to miss out on retirement savings.

In a typical ATO investigation of an unpaid super case, a worker has missed out on nearly two years worth of super contributions. For the average 35-year-old, failing to recover this money could reduce their retirement savings by around $32,000 in today's dollars. The bill will also improve the way the superannuation guarantee charge works. It will encourage employers to contribute for their employees in full and on time. Where employers don't contribute on time, it will provide a clearer path for employers to correct their mistake and it will deliver more significant consequences for employers who continue to do the wrong thing.

The increased frequency of contributions will also result in greater earnings on contributions, as they are in workers' funds sooner. In the current system, a 25-year-old median income worker who is paid their wages fortnightly and their super quarterly could be $6,000 better off in today's dollars at retirement with the shift to payday super.

The government will not be supporting the amendments moved and tabled by the shadow Treasurer. I accept that businesses across the economy will need to make system and process changes to implement what is contained in this bill. We share the desire of those opposite to support employers and small businesses through the implementation of this change. However, where we differ is that we believe every single worker should benefit from these changes from 1 July 2026. We've made sensible changes that will support employers and digital service providers in the transition to the new system. We adjusted the default due date for contributions to be received by superannuation funds, changing this from seven calendar days to seven business days.

We have also introduced an extended due date of 20 business days for situations where an employer needs to change the fund they contribute to for an employee. In addition, the ATO has indicated that it will adopt a transitional compliance approach during the first year. Employers who make a genuine attempt to comply, even if they face technical issues, will not be targeted by ATO compliance.

The shadow Treasurer compared the staged rollout of Single Touch Payroll with payday rollout, suggesting the government should adopt the same approach. The key difference here is that Single Touch Payroll is a reporting measure, whereas payday is a cashflow measure. A staggered approach in this instance would result in workers losing out on their super balances.

We listened to the feedback from stakeholders, and this bill strikes the correct balance. It avoids both delays and further financial harm for workers who do not currently have super paid into their accounts. This bill is an important step forward in strengthening the super system and achieving a dignified retirement for all Australians. I commend this bill to the House.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question before the House is that the amendment moved by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition be agreed to.