Madonna Jarrett (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bill is another step in strengthening a system that delivers on its purpose of providing income for a dignified retirement. Schedule 1 to the bill amends the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act to streamline the super choice-of-funds process during employee onboarding. When starting a new job, Australians deserve to know their options and make informed choices about their super fund.

Stapling has also been introduced, to ensure employers pay superannuation contributions to an employee's existing super fund if that employee doesn't make a choice. Now, if an employee doesn't make a choice of fund, their employer can request the stapled fund details from the ATO, and this really prevents employees unintentionally opening new super accounts every time they start a new job. It also supports our government's commitment to empower employees to make informed decisions, informed choices, by making it easier for them to see, consider and select their existing super fund when they start a new job, if that's what they choose to do. To be clear, though: as under existing choice-of-fund rules, the employees will still be able to choose any available super fund. This amendment also supports our government's commitment to reduce unintended duplicate accounts, which can erode savings over time, as we all know, with duplicate fees or extra insurance premiums.

I look around at my young sons and their friends as they're starting work and I guarantee you: their superannuation fund is not top of mind for them. It's really easy, I think, when changing jobs, to lose track of things like your super and to inadvertently open another fund—especially when it's dropped in front of you when you're signing many, many papers for a new job and while you've got a hundred and one things going on in your mind and you may even be a bit nervous. These changes will also give employers, though, more timely and accurate superannuation details, supporting their readiness for our government's payday super reforms.

Schedule 2 to the bill amends the Corporations Act 2001 to impose a ban on advertising superannuation products to employees during onboarding, but with certain exceptions. Again, Australians deserve protection from inappropriate advertising when they provide their superannuation details to an employer when onboarding. This is a key moment for employees when they start work, and they should be able to engage with their super in a safe and informed way, free of inappropriate pressure or product promotions.

There was a review called Your Future, Your Super, which uncovered some inappropriate behaviour where software providers were undermining stapling and directing employees to advertising of products, including those associated with the software provider. Our government really wants to put a stop to that inappropriate behaviour. This amendment introduces a ban on advertising super products to an employee, specifically at the point of onboarding when starting a new job, as I've said.

The following exceptions will apply so that only certain types of superannuation products can be shown or advertised to employees: the employee's super fund, the employer's default fund, and MySuper products that meet the following conditions. First, they have to pass the Annual Superannuation Performance Test. Second, the person advertising the product must not be related to the super fund that is offering the product—pretty important. Third, the person advertising the MySuper product has to have requested an employee's stapled fund and must provide those details to the employee if available. Finally, the advertisement must be accompanied by clear and unambiguous disclosures.

For clarity: MySuper fund products are default superannuation products which are subject to strict regulation and an annual performance test. And the condition to show an employee their stapled fund is an important consumer protection that will provide the necessary information in order to make a better-informed decision. Just for clarity, the ban does not apply to a person advertising in the ordinary course of business.

Our government consulted with stakeholders on this amendment, and there was broad support for the changes and, importantly, an understanding of the benefits superannuation stapling brings to reducing unintended duplicate accounts. By requiring stapling as a condition of advertising a MySuper product during onboarding, the bill strikes a pretty decent balance. It gives employees as much transparency as possible while providing flexibility for service providers to ensure that their systems are ready, and it aligns with the implementation of Payday Super.

These amendments reinforce our government's commitment to supporting Australians to make informed choices about their superannuation while providing strong consumer protection. They will protect employees from being unduly influenced and from making uninformed decisions. Under the existing choice-of-fund rules, employees will still be able to choose any available super fund.

These reforms build on our government's broader work to strengthen super: legislating the purpose of super, lifting the super guarantee to 12 per cent, boosting the low-income super tax offset and paying superannuation on paid parental leave. We have implemented major reforms to ensure that funds deliver for their members, from the financial accountability regime to stronger reporting standards, and expanding the performance test from around 80 products to more than 800.

Let's move on to some other matters in the bill. In Australia we love our sport. It's part of our national identity. Schedule 3 of the bill provides targeted tax exemptions to help Australia host the men's and women's Rugby World Cup in 2027 and 2029. These games aren't just two events on a calendar. They're part of a long national tradition of hosting sports that brings people together. World Rugby chose Australia in 2022 for a good reason: we are a country that competes. The men's and women's World Cups will draw hundreds of thousands of international visitors, which will boost local tourism. It'll pack our hotels, fill up our pubs and restaurants, pack out our stadiums, and showcase Australia on the world stage in the lead-up to the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.

Hosting the Rugby World Cup will generate jobs. It'll deliver long-term benefits to local communities, including increased participation in sport, especially among women and girls. The amendments will provide income tax exemptions for event delivery companies and joint venture partners, and there'll be a withholding tax exemption for certain payments to foreign entities up to 30 June 2031. These settings align with what's been put in place previously for other major global sporting events hosted here, including the famous 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. They're critical to ensuring that Australia remains competitive and an attractive destination for global events.

Moving on to schedule 4 of the bill, this puts Australia's new tax treaty with Portugal into law, adding to the attractiveness of Australia as an investment destination. This is actually the first agreement of its kind between our countries, and it opens the door to deeper commercial, investment and innovation links by cutting withholding-tax rates on dividends, interest and royalties. It means fewer tax barriers, cheaper access to foreign capital and stronger incentives for Australian and Portuguese businesses to invest. This helps strengthen our tax integrity.

Finally, the convention supports the government's plan to make multinationals pay their fair share of tax and, again, strengthens the integrity of the tax system. It helps prevent tax evasion and avoidance by providing mechanisms for tax authorities to exchange information and to provide assistance in the collection of tax debts. Exchange of information is very important in that regard.

Schedule 5 of the bill amends the income tax laws to specifically list 11 entities as deductible gift recipients. I won't read them all, but a couple I'll mention are Community Foundations Australia and Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment. Specifically listing an organisation encourages philanthropic giving and supports our not-for-profit sectors, as donors may claim income tax deductions for donations to organisations with deductible gift recipient status. To maintain the trust and integrity of the deductible gift recipient system, the schedule also removes entities that have either voluntarily asked to be removed or no longer operate for the purposes for which they were originally provided DGR status.

The last schedule of the bill relates to wine. In Australia we love a good drop, and we have some of the best wines in the world—some of them not too far from here. Schedule 6 delivers on the Albanese government's 2025-26 budget commitment to provide tax relief for Australian wine producers. Currently, all eligible wine products can receive a rebate of wine equalisation tax of up to about $350,000. The changes this bill introduces increase that cap to $400,000 per financial year from 1 July 2026. And we didn't stop at wine. Through regulations, we're making matching changes for brewers and distillers too. From 1 July, the excise remission cap for eligible alcohol manufacturers will rise from $350,000 to $400,000 a year for beer and spirits entered for home consumption. That keeps wine, beer and spirits all in step.

Together, these changes back our local producers. They keep money flowing through our regional towns. They support jobs. They support investment. I say cheers to that, and I commend the bill to the House.

Renee Coffey (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In Griffith people change jobs often—a hospitality worker picking up extra shifts along Boundary Street, a nurse moving between hospitals, a tradie starting as a new subcontractor in Woolloongabba, a graduate launching their career with a new tertiary degree or TAFE qualification—and, every time that happens, a very ordinary human admin moment comes around again: the dreaded onboarding forms. For most workers, this is the key moment where their super is set up for a new job. But, if they are rushed, if the information is unclear or if the process is cluttered with product promotion, they can be steered into decisions they did not really make. They can end up with a new account they don't need, paying duplicate fees and insurance and watching their retirement savings erode in the background.

Workers deserve better. They deserve to be properly informed, to clearly see their existing stapled fund, to understand their options and to make a genuine choice that fits their circumstances—because it is their money and it is their retirement. That is exactly what this bill is really about: making sure working people keep more of what they earn so that they can retire with dignity.

Schedules 1 and 2 go to the heart of fairness in the superannuation system, ensuring workers and their interests are always put first in onboarding processes related to super. We introduced stapling to stop people being defaulted into a brand-new account every time they start a new job. It's a simple idea: your existing fund can follow you unless you choose otherwise. It matters because duplicate accounts mean duplicate fees, duplicate insurance and lower balances, ultimately, at the time of retirement. Schedule 1 strengthens that protection by streamlining the choice-of-fund process during onboarding. It gives employers more flexibility to request an employee stapled fund details earlier so the employee can actually see their existing fund during the onboarding process, consider it and then make an informed choice. That's not taking choice away. It's quite the opposite. It's making choice real, because people cannot choose what they cannot see. It also helps employers do the right thing. It gives them more timely and accurate information, and that is especially important as we move towards payday super, where super is paid alongside wages, not months later. Payday super is about making sure workers are paid what they are owed when they are owed it. These reforms help the system get ready to deliver that change smoothly.

Schedule 2 of the bill deals with the creeping commercialisation of onboarding. A 2022-23 review of the Your Future, Your Super reforms found that some onboarding software providers were being paid to advertise super products and sometimes products associated with the provider right at the moment when a worker is trying to start a new job and get their paperwork in order. That's not informed consent; that's just sales and marketing. Schedule 2 introduces a targeted ban on superannuation advertising during onboarding, with sensible exemptions so that workers can still see their stapled fund, the employer default fund and, in limited circumstances, certain regulated MySuper products with strong disclosure requirements. That is exactly where consumer protection belongs, and it will go a long way in protecting the superannuation of all workers across Australia. Changes like these keep the focus where it should be—on transparency, informed choice and workers' interests, not on marketing.

These onboarding reforms are part of our government's larger set of changes to fix unpaid super and strengthen confidence in the system, and payday super is central to that. In December last year, the ATO released new data revealing $1.1 billion in unpaid super had been returned to nearly a million individual super funds in 2024-25. That's money that people earned—and it was hard-earned—but did not originally receive. Unpaid super does not fall evenly. It disproportionately affects younger workers and people in insecure work, many of whom live in my area of Griffith. These are the very workers least able to absorb the loss and the least likely to have the time or the power to be able to chase it up.

We have unfortunately seen what this looks like in our communities. It looks like younger workers in hospitality juggling shifts, trying to pay rent and assuming everything has been paid properly, only to find out years later that it was not. It looks like someone changing jobs and not even realising they have missing contributions until the debt is too old or the business has folded. We also know that impact compounds, because super is built on time. When contributions are missing, workers not only lose that contribution; they lose the investment earnings on top of it.

From 1 July this year, employers will be required to pay superannuation guarantee contributions at the same time as wages, instead of quarterly, and contributions will need to be received by the employee super fund within a shorter window after pay day so workers can more easily track what they are owed and the ATO can detect missing payments earlier before debts become unrecoverable. The system is also being modernised to ensure consequences match the harm when employers do not pay on time. That is why schedules 1 and 2 are so important. If we're asking the system to move to payday super then onboarding processes must be clean, transparent and worker focused. We cannot have a system where super is paid more frequently but workers are still being nudged into unnecessary new accounts or pushed past information that would help them to make a good, genuine decision and choice.

Schedule 3 provides targeted income tax and withholding tax exemptions for World Rugby and Rugby Australia strictly limited to income directly related to delivering the rugby world cups. This approach follows established precedent for other major international events hosted here, and it matters for the legacy we leave—jobs, tourism, local participation and especially a lift in opportunities for women and girls in sport as the women's tournament approaches.

Schedule 5 of the bill matters deeply to me and to communities like Griffith because it speaks to the strength of Australia's not-for-profit sector and the quiet generosity that underpins it. For a couple of decades before entering this place, I worked in the charities sector in Australia, leading national charities, so this is particularly important to me and of course important to the sector and the donors who part with their hard-earned money to support the causes. Deductible gift recipient, DGR, listing is valuable for fundraising and is a practical lever that helps organisations attract public support for work that benefits the community, including Equality Australia, one of the many incredible organisations that will be listed for DGR status under this bill. Equality Australia is doing work that is often complex and behind the scenes—detailed law reform, careful policy development and sustained advocacy to close gaps that still leave LGBTQIA+ people exposed to discrimination or harm. For organisations like Equality Australia, fundraising is critical to ensure they can keep the lights on, and the listing for DGR status will bolster their efforts.

Before coming into this place, I sat on the board of Fundraising Institute Australia, so I have particular experiences and insights into just how much DGR status can help these charities, organisations and non-profits. In practice, DGR status encourages the community to support the work of these organisations, which in turn helps organisations plan further ahead, invest in staff and expertise and respond quickly when the community needs them, whether that is preparing submissions, supporting campaigns or turning lived experience into concrete reform proposals. It strengthens not only their financial base but also their long-term stability that allows them to keep showing up year after year for the people they serve. In a community like mine in Brisbane, that work really matters. It helps make sure people can participate in community life without fear, and it strengthens the basic Australian promise that everyone should be treated with fairness and with respect.

I want to make special mention of another organisation that will be listed for DGR status under this bill, the Parenthood Project. In Griffith, we are absolutely a community of families, including parents juggling cost-of-living pressures, the childcare waitlist, the scramble of drop-off and pick-up, and the constant effort to give kids the best chances and a good start. The Parenthood's work is squarely in that lived reality. The Parenthood is an advocacy organisation, working to make Australia the best place in the world to be a parent, backed by a national community of more than 80,000 parents and carers. As the CEO, Georgie Dent, shared with me:

DGR status is a game-changer for The Parenthood.

It recognises the vital public benefit of our work to make Australia the best place in the world to be a parent and raise a child. It's a vote of confidence in the power of parents to help build a fairer, more equitable Australia.

That's the point. When we make it easier for Australians to support the organisations delivering real public benefit, we strengthen the fabric of our community.

This bill brings together a set of practical measures that speak to the kind of economy and community we want to build. It strengthens how superannuation works at the moments that matter so workers are informed, protected from inappropriate sales pressure and better placed to keep more of what they earn for retirement. It honours Australia's commitments as a host of major international sporting events with clear, targeted and time limited tax settings that help deliver the rugby world cups and the jobs, tourism and participation legacy that can flow from them. It builds on the strength of our not-for-profit sector by extending deductible gift recipient status to organisations that continue to deliver immeasurable public benefit, helping them to fundraise, to plan and to keep showing up for the communities that they serve.

Mary Doyle (Aston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Supporting Choice in Superannuation and Other Measures) Bill 2025. Without a doubt, Labor is the party of superannuation. This bill is yet another step that our government has taken to strengthen a system that delivers on its purpose of providing income for a dignified retirement. Schedule 1 streamlines the choice of fund process so workers can see and consider their existing stapled fund when they start a new job. This will help reduce duplicate accounts that erode retirement savings through unnecessary fees and insurance premiums. The Albanese Labor government is of the strong belief that Australians deserve to make an informed choice about their superannuation. Earlier access to stapled fund details means employees can make that choice with confidence and employers have the right information to support our government's payday super reforms.

Schedule 2 introduces a targeted ban on superannuation advertising during onboarding. This is a key moment for employees, and they should be able to engage with their super in a safe and informed way, free from inappropriate pressure on all product promotion. Limited exceptions ensure workers can still see their stapled fund, the employer's default fund or a regulated MySuper product, keeping the focus on transparency, not sales tactics.

These reforms build on our government's broader work to strengthen super—legislating the purpose of super, lifting the super guarantee to 12 per cent, boosting the low-income super tax offset, or LISTO as it's become known, and paying super on paid parental leave. The Albanese Labor government has implemented major reforms to ensure funds deliver for their members, from the financial accountability regime and stronger reporting standards to expanding the performance test from around 80 products to more than 800. Together with payday super, these reforms will help make sure Australians earn more, keep more of what they earn and retire with more.

The comparison could not be clearer. Those opposite, every time they were elected to government, going back to the Howard years, delayed the super guarantee and undermined the foundations of our world-class retirement system. However, on this side of the House, our government is strengthening superannuation and making it more sustainable so it can deliver a decent retirement for Australian workers. This government is proud of Australia's superannuation system. We are especially proud of its history, particularly our industry super—how the Labor movement fought for a fair retirement system for all workers and how the Labor Party brought superannuation to all workers via the super guarantee back in the early 1990s, which was when I began my working career, so it was not just the upper echelons of corporations, the senior managers and CEOs, who benefited from superannuation any more, oh no. Our super system has been our best financial success story and the envy of the world. You know who else we are proud of? The many workers around this country that our super supports. And I am proud to be a part of a government that is ensuring it continues to deliver for generations to come.

Schedule 1 to the bill, employee onboarding reforms, amends the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 to streamline the superannuation choice of fund process during employee onboarding. Australians deserve to make an informed choice about their superannuation fund when they start a new job. This amendment provides greater flexibility for employers or their agents to request an employee's existing stapled fund details from the ATO earlier in the onboarding process. That way, if the stapled fund exists, the employer can provide those details to the employee during onboarding to help inform their choice of fund. This amendment 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. This will reduce unintended duplicate accounts, which can erode retirement savings through duplicate fees and insurance premiums. Duplicate fees add up and can mean thousands and thousands of lost retirement earnings over years of a worker's career. This will give employers more timely and accurate superannuation details, supporting their readiness for the government's payday super reforms.

Schedule 2 is the ban on advertising superannuation funds during onboarding. Schedule 2 to the bill amends the Corporations Act 2001 to impose a ban on advertising superannuation products to employees during onboarding with certain exceptions, of course. Australians deserve protection from inappropriate advertising when they provide their superannuation details to an employer during the onboarding process. This amendment introduces a ban on advertising superannuation products to an employee specifically at the point of the employee onboarding when starting a new job. This is a key moment when employees engage with their superannuation, and they should be able to do so in an informed and safe way. Exceptions will be available for showing employees their stapled fund, the employer's default fund and certain MySuper products, which are subject to strict regulation. This amendment reinforces the government's commitment to supporting Australians to make an informed choice about their superannuation, while also providing strong consumer protections. It will protect employees from being unduly influenced to make uninformed decisions, open inappropriate products and unintentionally create duplicate accounts.

Schedule 3 contains an income tax and withholding tax exemption for the Rugby World Cups. Schedule 3 delivers on our commitments and honours Australia's obligations to world rugby as part of our successful bid to host the 2027 men's and women's 2029 Rugby World Cups. It ensures we remain a trusted and competitive host for major international sporting events. The tax exemptions are strictly limited to income directly related to the delivery of the events, and apply only between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2031. This is not a blanket exemption. It is a focused measure with clear boundaries. Hosting both these Rugby World Cups will generate jobs, boost tourism and deliver long-term benefits to local communities, including increased participation in sport, especially among women and girls. Similar exemptions were provided for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup and for the 2020 ICC T20 World Cup. This measure follows a well-established approach to supporting international sporting events in Australia. This measure fulfils Australia's commitments to world rugby as part of our successful bid to host the 2027 and 2029 Rugby World Cups. These events are part of Australia's broader sporting legacy, leading into the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This measure will help ensure their success and maximises their national impact.

Schedule 4—the Portuguese convention. Schedule 4 of this bill amends the International Tax Agreements Act 1953 to give force of law to the tax convention between Australia and Portugal, which was signed on 30 November 2023. This convention is the first of its kind between Australia and Portugal and it will provide avenues to support closer bilateral linkages with Portugal, particularly in the areas of commercial trade, investment and innovation. It will do so by reducing withholding tax rates on dividends, interest and royalties, which will reduce tax disincentives to investment and the cost of business of accessing foreign capital. The convention will also reduce compliance costs for taxpayers and improve certainty for individuals and businesses that have dealings in Australia and in Portugal by determining the allocation of profits from cross-border dealings between the two countries. The convention will add to the attractiveness of Australia as an investment destination.

Finally, the convention supports the government's plan to make multinationals pay their fair share of tax and strengthens the integrity of the tax system. It helps prevent tax evasion and avoidance by providing mechanisms for the tax authorities to exchange information and provide assistance in the collection of tax debts.

Schedule 5 to the bill refers to deductible gift recipients' specific listings, which encourages philanthropic giving and supports the not-for-profit sector, as donors may claim in tax income tax deductions for donations to organisations with DGR status. Removal of specific listings is necessary to maintain trust and integrity in the administration of tax concessions that can be accessed for not-for-profits that have DGR status.

And finally, schedule 6 to the bill will increase support for wine producers under the existing wine equalisation tax producer rebate scheme from 1 July 2026 by increasing the rebate cap of $350,000 to $400,000 per financial year. Schedule 6 will support approximately 3,000 wine producers.

This is evidence of, yet again, our government taking strong action to strengthen superannuation and ensuring that it delivers on its purpose of providing income for a dignified retirement. I commend this bill to the House.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's great to see you up there in the chair, Deputy Speaker Sharkie, and I look forward to addressing the chair as we talk about this TLAB. It obviously has lots of schedules, but I'll be focusing—as you would expect from a Labor member of parliament—on our wonderful reforms to super, not only located in this bill here today but also more broadly. Because here on this side of the House, as a Labor government, we recognise that superannuation is one of the most significant economic reforms ever undertaken in this country. For us, it's not a side policy or a 'nice to have'; for Labor, super isn't an optional extra. We see it as a central pillar of how Australians can fund a dignified retirement after a lifetime of work. It's about fairness, and it's about ensuring that people have that dignified retirement after working so hard.

For most Australians, superannuation is their second-largest asset, after their home, and it represents decades of effort, sacrifice and contribution. And because super is compulsory, because Australians cannot opt out, governments carry a serious responsibility to ensure that the system works fairly, with transparency and in the interests of its members—not for profit, not so that others can jump into it and take it when they need it. It's got to work well for the members. So we have that responsibility, as the government, for members to get the maximum they can from this world-class retirement system.

We built superannuation, but we've always understood that just building it is not enough; it's not just a 'set and forget'. Like most things, it needs to be maintained, it needs to be strengthened and it needs to be modernised as the economy changes, as work changes and as the risks facing workers evolve. This bill is a practical example of that theory. Reforms in this bill are targeted, they're sensible and they improve the experience of how Australians engage with their super at one of the most important moments in their working lives, and that of course is when they start a new job. These reforms improve that experience in a way that supports informed choice, stronger consumer protection and ultimately better retirement outcomes.

In Bennelong we see clearly why the design of the superannuation system matters. Bennelong has lower median super balances than the state and national average, and where there are lower balances there's less margin for error. When accounts are duplicated, where fees accumulate or contributions go unpaid, the consequences in Bennelong are felt more sharply. The median balance of a super fund member in Bennelong is $52,100, compared with the New South Wales median of $61,800. The median balance for Australia overall is $62,100.

But, at the same time, many people in Bennelong, like others across the country, are approaching their age of retirement after many years of working. Their super balances represent decades of steady contribution and in many cases some pretty decent gains year on year. Protecting those balances and ensuring that every dollar owed is paid and preserved and that accumulation keeps going is essential. That's why these reforms improve how people engage with super. Importantly, these reforms that we're rolling out now, as well as the ones we've done in this term and seek to do with legislation introduced yesterday, all have the goal of improving retirement outcomes over time.

Starting a new job is one of the most common moments that Australians are required to make decisions about their superannuation. It's also one of the moments when people are least equipped to do so. Obviously you're starting a new job, you're trying to fit in, you've got to go through your work contracts and understand what's going on there, as well as your pay. You're negotiating hours. You're thinking about probation periods. Superannuation can easily become an afterthought—easily—even though we know that the consequences of that can compound over decades if you make the wrong choice. Too often, super's kind of not considered important, and the result for many employees at a new job is that they just go with the default fund of the employer, which may or may not match with the fund they've got, and that duplicates these accounts. You duplicate account fees, you duplicate insurance policies and workers lose money through those fees, because they've opened unnecessary accounts.

I don't think that's a failure of individual responsibility—there's a lot going on when you start a new job, particularly if you've moved town or if it's your first job. There are things that can happen with the system design that can make that experience a lot easier and a lot better, and that's what schedule 1 of this bill does. It reforms the employee onboarding process to ensure that workers can see and consider their existing stapled superannuation fund earlier, at the point where they're making decisions about their employment arrangements. Stapling means that when a worker starts a new job, their superannuation account is stapled to them and follows them from employer to employer—unless they actively choose a different fund, which is an important aspect of what we believe super to be. Super choice is really important.

Stapling was introduced to stop people unintentionally opening a new super account every time. It was an important first step. But what we're seeing is that when employees onboard—obviously, nowadays usually in a electronic onboarding system where you go online and you fill out all your details—that stapled fund is not being displayed at the point of onboarding. That means that it goes around the intent of what stapling was designed to do. This amendment provides greater flexibilities for employers or their agents to request an employee's stapled fund details from the ATO earlier in the onboarding process, rather than months later or by paper forms, as sometimes happens. If the stapled fund exists then those details are provided at the time that they're filling out that super choice form.

With the rollout of electronic payroll systems, single-touch payroll, the ATO playing the role they play in superannuation compliance, and Payday Super coming in, it should be pretty easy for those software providers to update their coding so that they can chat to the ATO and get that detail right at the time when they need to fill out their super choice form and the employers can know where to pay their super. This will mean workers can make an informed decision. It astronomically reduces the risks of duplicate accounts, and it ensures that employers have accurate information rather than just defaulting to the employer's default fund. Importantly, this reform doesn't limit choice. Employees have the right, as they should, to choose any super fund they wish. They can open a new one, they can make sure their super payments go in their stapled fund, or they can go with the employer's default fund.

Schedule 2 of the bill reforms it even further, and introduces a targeted ban on advertising superannuation products during employee onboarding. For those that have electronic onboarding, what has found its way into the system is some super funds—you can't blame them, they've tried to exploit a loophole here, and employees are getting are advertisements during the onboarding process, enticing them at that critical time, perhaps, to either go with a product that doesn't suit them or open a new fund which may have those issues of duplication and extra fees. Onboarding is a critical decision point, and it's when workers provide sensitive information and make financial decisions. Something like that shouldn't be treated as a marketing opportunity where advertisers seek to take advantage of that decision point and maybe encourage employees not to make the best decision in their interests.

A review of earlier reforms found that onboarding software providers were being paid to advertise superannuation products—often products linked to the provider—during the onboarding process. We believe that creates a bit of a conflict of interest. This bill cleans that up a bit, bans advertising during onboarding, but allows sensible and tightly controlled exceptions. Employees will still be able to see their stapled fund, their employer's default fund and certain MySuper products that must meet strict conditions, including passing the performance tests and being accompanied by clear disclosures. It's about protecting informed choice and advertisers not taking advantage of the situation where they're onboarding. These are two more reforms to super as part of a broader, deliberate agenda by the Labor government to strengthen the Australian superannuation system so it works in the interests of members across their working life.

We've legislated the objective of superannuation for the first time, with the ultimate aim of preserving savings to deliver income for a dignified retirement. We saw, at every opportunity, the Liberals and Nationals try and attack super and erode the concept of that accumulation. There was their failed policy of super for housing, and then, during COVID, making younger workers in particular raid their super just to get by during a worldwide pandemic was just an awful policy by a government that got so much wrong during that COVID response. The impacts of young Australians wiping 20 grand or 30 grand out of their super will be borne not only by them individually but by the taxpayer when those people come to retirement and have lost tens of thousands of dollars in returns because the Morrison government allowed them to raid their super during a national emergency. We've had to come in and legislate that objective of superannuation for the first time so that the Liberals and Nationals can't unpick it at their whim. The objective provides a clear benchmark against which future changes must be judged.

Also under Labor the superannuation guarantee has reached 12 per cent after a long time. It was meant to be 12 per cent, I think, in the first term of the Howard government, in 1996. It's a long time since 1996, and we finally got to 12 per cent not only after it was delayed by the Howard government but then also after increases were delayed by the Abbott, Morrison and Turnbull governments as well.

We're also addressing longstanding inequities in the system. Paid parental leave will now be subject to super. We're boosting the low-income superannuation tax offset. LISTO is my favourite abbreviation, Deputy Speaker Swanson. 'Go down to the pub and talk about the LISTO' sounds like something we on this side would say, because increasing superannuation contributions for our lowest paid workers so they too can have more funds when they need them in retirement is a great policy. Our reforms to the LISTO will help those on lower incomes, including thousands of workers in Bennelong, and it was great to see the Treasurer introduce those reforms in the House this week.

At the same time, we're also strengthening accountability and performance. We've expanded the superannuation performance test. We've lifted reporting standards. We've introduced the financial accountability regime to ensure that funds are delivering for their members, We're improving system integrity by requiring super to be paid at the same time as wages, finally, through payday super. I hope this reform doesn't stop here. We know that we need to keep on changing super to make sure it's performing for members. The Treasurer also introduced some really important tax concession reform to make super fairer and more sustainable over the long term.

I know a great union, the SDA, has got a great campaign about getting young people superannuation. If you're under 18, you don't get paid super, which made a lot of sense a long time ago, when superannuation amounts were so small and you had to process payments manually, write a cheque and post it to the super fund that had to cash that cheque. It made a lot of sense for small super amounts not to be paid, but in 2026 there's payday super. With electronic methods of super payment, where the cost of transferring money electronically is next to zero, I think the SDA have a very strong case for future reform—reform, obviously, to be done by a Labor government, because we know what those opposite do with super.

I commend this bill to the House. Labor created super; we'll always stand to protect it.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was Labor that introduced super in 1992, and it did so to ensure that all Australian workers could retire with dignity and financial security. It has been Labor ever since then that has ensured that the superannuation guarantee that was introduced continues to serve Australian workers in the way it was intended to. Labor continue to upgrade and refine the superannuation laws so nobody misses out. A good example of that is when it was applied to people on paid parental leave.

Contrary to that, we have seen, ever since the superannuation guarantee was introduced, the coalition trying to somehow obstruct the intent of it. Indeed, we not only saw that in the last period of coalition government, where the contribution rate was 9.5 per cent and remained that way between 2014 and 2021. We have since seen several attempts by coalition policies to try and allow people to have access to that super before they are entitled to, which, in my view, totally undermines the whole purpose of the scheme.

The reality is that, because of Labor's policies, today there is some $4.3 trillion in superannuation assets held in this country. My understanding is—and this is based on the latest figures I was able to get—that over $2.7 trillion is in APRA regulated entities and over $1 trillion is in self-managed funds. These are big numbers. I understand that Australia has the fourth-largest super assets holdings globally of any country and, the way we are going, it may well be that we'll be No. 1 in the years ahead.

But the importance of super is simply this: not only does it provide for security and financial stability in retirement years but it actually reduces the burden on governments in paying pensions for those who don't have superannuation. In fact, right now, Australia is possibly the only country bucking the global trend and spending a smaller proportion of GDP on the pension whilst other countries are spending more of their GDP on pension payments. So we're going against that trend all because of the superannuation policies that we have in this country.

Labor's commitment to a sustainable superannuation system is demonstrated with this very legislation. The legislation has six schedules to it. I don't have time to talk about each of the schedules, but I want to talk about two of them. The first is to try and ensure that we ban advertising during onboarding. In a simplistic way, that's all about trying to ensure that people don't invest their money with funds which are not credible and secure. We saw that with the collapse of the Shield Master Fund and the First Guardian managed investment schemes, which impacted some 12,000 investors and perhaps up to $1.2 billion of funds. Whilst it appears some of those investors will be compensated, the future is very uncertain for many others who have lost some or all of their retirement savings and don't know if they will receive compensation. Investors were lured into those funds through being cold-called and encouraged to switch from safer, more regulated funds to higher-risk, less-regulated funds. This highlights just how important it is to ensure that adequate protections are put in place against the types of unscrupulous practices that too often take place.

Schedule 2 of the bill places a ban on advertising superannuation funds during an employee's onboarding when starting a new job, with some exceptions. Whilst this doesn't directly address the circumstances that arose in the Shield and First Guardian collapses, it does nevertheless deal with a similar type of flaw whereby people may be exploited to make an uninformed choice at short notice amongst all the paperwork and preparation when they start a new job.

The second issue that I want to briefly speak about is how this legislation affects the wine tax and, in particular, the wine equalisation tax, which will go from $350,000 to $500,000. These facts can be sourced very easily from wine industry websites. To put this into perspective, I'll just go through some of the facts. The wine industry contributes some $51 billion to the Australian economy, supports about 200,000 direct and indirect jobs and contributes to regional tourism, with 7.5 million winery visits annually. And Australia is a top six global wine producer. Sixty per cent of Australian wine is exported. That is 630 million tonnes, on the last figures that I was able to get, and over a third of that goes to goes to China. Total production is about 1.57 million tonnes a year. Across Australia, we have 2,156 wineries and some 6,000 grape growers. My home state of South Australia accounts for over 52 per cent of all of that.

Right now, the industry is struggling. In fact, it's in crisis. An oversupply of wine and declining domestic and global consumption is causing that, and that's leading to an oversupply, where we currently have about 52 million litres in storage. A few years ago, growers were getting something like $600 per tonne for their grapes. Today, they are offered $150 a tonne if they can get a buyer. That amount, $150 a tonne, doesn't even cover production costs—water, fertilisers, insecticides, labour et cetera—and when you add climate change to all that, you understand how difficult it is for some of those growers, which has led to a number of the growers now ripping out good plantations, healthy vines. Quite frankly, it's a shame to see that happening.

Part of the problem that we face right now is that, back in 2021, because of the Morrison government's stance, China closed its door to Australian wine for three years and imposed tariffs of between 116 to 218 per cent. Labor lifted those tariffs in March 2024, almost exactly three years later, and sales have started to pick up. But, for three years, we had almost no sales whatsoever. Those three years of no sales literally account for all of the wine that is now in storage and which can't be sold. Regrettably, even though the markets have reopened, the problem is that China found new places to buy their wine from, so getting back to the full amount of wine that was being sold to China before the tariffs were imposed is becoming increasingly difficult. Add to that USA, UK, Hong Kong and Canadian wine sales, which have all declined, and you begin to understand that the wine industry is indeed in crisis.

So I simply say this: raising the wine equalisation tax from $350,000 to $400,000 will make some difference. It's not the silver bullet. It won't cure all the problems, but it will make a difference, and right now the wine industry across Australia is in desperate need of whatever help it can get. I understand that the chamber will now be adjourning in just a moment, so I won't go on, but I simply stress that point, because it's a clear example of the damage done to the wine industry by a bad decision of a government a few years ago and one that now impacts so many families across Australia.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A quorum not being present, the Federation Chamber is suspended and will resume when the chair is resumed.

Sitting suspended from 11:58 to 12:41

(Quorum formed)

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just before the suspension, I was referring to the increase of the wine equalisation tax producer rebate cap from $350,000 to $400,000 and how that will provide some relief to the wine industry across Australia, which is on its knees at the moment. I was making the point that the wine industry is struggling right now because of decisions and policies taken by the coalition government under Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the time. In turn, that ended up with China closing its doors to Australian wine for three years in which there was almost no wine being sold to our previously largest importer of Australian wines.

Whilst the producer rebate cap being lifted to $400,000 is important and will provide some assistance, of course it won't go far enough to help those wine producers and the grape growers who are indeed struggling and right now having to pull out their vines. Just to do that, I understand, costs them around $7,000 a hectare, and then to replant with something else might add another $30,000 a hectare. So you can appreciate the financial burden it places on them. Of course they would be welcoming some additional government support in respect to that, particularly because they find themselves in the position they do because of a previous government's approach. And so I have a great deal of sympathy for those wine growers.

The last matter that I will touch on is schedule 4 of this legislation, which talks about the convention that was agreed to between Australia and Portugal—a tax convention that was signed in November 2023, just over two years ago. There are two aspects to this that I think are critical. For one, in the global environment we live in, I think it's important to have tax laws that can be as simple as possible to use between two different countries, because that in turn makes the flow of free trade so much easier and allows businesses, whether they're in Portugal or here in Australia, to do business without having to have complicated tax arrangements in place. But the more significant issue of that convention is that it also helps with trying to control the tax evasion that takes place across the world every day by multinationals who use different countries in order to set up their management arrangements for this very specific purpose of evading tax. We know that that's been the case for years and we know that, under both coalition and Labor governments, there have been attempts to try and reduce or prevent that in different ways. But it's not very easy when you are dealing with entities that operate from different countries and when those countries are not prepared to comply with an arrangement whereby people are required to pay their fair share of tax. It's not good for either country, so to have the tax convention signed between Portugal and Australia is something I dearly welcome. Because whilst it won't stop these entities from operating the same kinds of schemes in other countries, at least it's another country that has added its name to the list of global countries that are out there trying to minimise tax evasion by multinationals, which runs into the trillions of dollars every year.

I know that it would make a huge difference to the budget here in Australia if those companies and those entities paid their full range of tax that they should be paying but which they are able to evade because they list their management centres in countries that are of low tax jurisdictions. So with those comments, I commend this legislation. It's another example of how Labor is committed to the superannuation scheme that was introduced back in 1982 and how we continuously ensure that it meets the requirements of today's people.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Superannuation was introduced by Labor to provide workers with dignity in retirement. It was a way of saying 'thank you' to workers for their decades of contribution to the workforce, to the companies and the organisations that they work for, and it was an opportunity to provide them with a comfortable retirement, a holiday every now and then, enough to look after the grandkids and to ensure that they had dignity in their senior years.

The system has grown into one of the largest pools of investment funds anywhere in the world, providing support for economic growth in our economy and ensuring that we have jobs for Australians into the future. But we need to make sure that our superannuation laws keep pace with changes in our economy and continue to provide that principle dignity for Australian workers in their retirement, and this bill introduces a number of reforms to superannuation and tax laws to achieve just that. The bill seeks to deliver on an election commitments to streamline systems and processes and to reduce compliance costs for taxpayers. We're ensuring that more Australians earn more, keep more of what they earn and retire with more as well, and that's another step in strengthening a system that delivers on its purpose of providing income for a dignified retirement.

Australians deserve to make an informed choice about their superannuation when starting a new job, so schedule 1 bill of this or one of this bill streamlines the choice of fund process so that workers can see and can consider their existing stapled fund. Stapling was introduced to ensure that employers pay superannuation contributions to an employee's existing superannuation fund if they don't make a choice. That helps reduce the duplication of accounts that eventually erode retirement savings through unnecessary fees and insurance premiums. Earlier access to stapled fund details means that employees can make that choice with confidence, and employers have the right information to support the government's payday super reforms.

Schedule 2 introduces a targeted ban on superannuation advertising during onboarding. This amendment introduces a ban on advertising superannuation products to an employee specifically at the point that the employee is onboarding when they start a new job. This is a key moment for employees, and they should be able to engage with their super in a safe and informed way, free from inappropriate pressures or product promotion. Australians deserve protection from inappropriate advertising when they provide their superannuation details to an employer during onboarding. Limited exceptions ensure workers can still see their stapled fund, the employer's default fund or a regulated MySuper product, keeping the focus on transparency, not sales tactics.

These reforms build on the government's broader work to strengthen superannuation: legislating the purpose of super; lifting the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent—again ensuring that we provide that dignity for workers in retirement as the cost-of-living increases; boosting the low-income superannuation tax offset; and paying super on paid parental leave. All measures ensure providing equality for women in the workforce and providing dignity for seniors in retirement.

We've implemented major reforms to ensure funds deliver for their members, from the financial accountability regime to stronger reporting standards, to expanding the performance test from around 80 products to more than 800. We are proud of Australia's superannuation system, proud of the workers that it supports and proud of the government that is ensuring it continues to deliver for generations of workers to come.

Schedule 3 of this bill provides targeted tax exemptions to help Australia host the men's and women's rugby world cups in 2027 and 2029. This ensures that we remain competitive and trusted to host major international sporting events. Similar exemptions were provided for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2020 ICC T20 world cup. This measure follows a well-established approach in supporting international sporting events in Australia and will, importantly, form part of our strategy around those sporting events in the lead-up to the pinnacle—the Olympics and Paralympic Games in Brisbane in 2032.

Schedule 4 of the bill amends the International Tax Agreements Act to give force to a law for the convention between Australia and Portugal, which was signed on 30 November 2023. The convention is the first of its kind between Australia and Portugal, and will provide avenues to support closer bilateral linkages with Portugal, particularly in the areas of commercial trade investment and innovation. It will do so by reducing withholding tax on dividends, interest and royalties, which will reduce tax disincentives to investment and the cost of business for accessing foreign capital. The convention will also reduce compliance costs for taxpayers and improve certainty for individual businesses that have dealings in Australia and in Portugal by determining allocation of profits from cross-border dealings between the two countries. Finally, the convention supports Australia's plan to make multinationals pay their fair share of tax and strengthens the integrity of our taxation system.

Schedule 6 delivers on the government's commitment to provide tax relief for Australia's wine producers. The support for wine producers comes under the existing wine equalisation tax producer rebate scheme from 1 July 2026 by increasing the rebate cap of $350,000 to $400,000 per financial year. Schedule 6 will support approximately 3,000 wine producers. These changes back local producers, keeping money flowing through regional towns and supporting investment and jobs.

These are commitments that Labor made in the lead-up to the last election. Again, it's proof that the Albanese government is delivering on its economic commitments and ensuring that Australian workers continue to be provided with dignity and equality in the workforce, particularly in retirement.

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that the bill be now read a second time, to which the honourable member for Fairfax moved, as an amendment, that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The honourable member for Wentworth has moved, as an amendment to that amendment, that all words after 'Whilst' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The immediate question is that the amendment moved by the honourable member for Wentworth be agreed to.

Question negatived.

The question is that the amendment moved by the honourable member for Fairfax be agreed to.

Question unresolved.

As it is necessary to resolve this question to enable further questions to be considered in relation to this bill, in accordance with standing order 195 the bill will be returned to the House for further consideration.