Richard Dowling (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Fundamentally, this bill is about fairness—fair pay, fair timing and a fair future.

(Quorum formed) I was just getting started and really hitting my stride. I got one line in, but I feel like I've had time to reflect and I can do it with even more gusto this time. Let's see how far I get through.

As I was reflecting, superannuation is not a bonus. It's not optional. It's a legislated entitlement. Yet right now millions of workers are being short-changed. Across this country, super is often paid months late, if it's paid at all. This is not a small administrative delay; it's a multibillion dollar breach of trust. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 and its companion, the Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Bill 2025, seek to fix that. From 1 July 2026, employers will be required to pay super contributions into an employee's fund within seven days of each payday rather than quarterly. Should they fail to do so, under the new framework, the penalties will be strengthened. The framework will include notional earnings, administrative uplifts and penalties for failing to use a worker's chosen fund. As other speakers have reflected on, the worker is the one who chooses the fund that works for them and sets them up for retirement. That should be the primacy of how that choice is made. Repeated noncompliance with this framework can attract penalties of up to 50 per cent of the unpaid amount.

It's only fair. Workers should not bear the burden of another's delay or oversight. It's a simple change aligning super with wages, and it will make the system fairer, more transparent and harder to exploit. It will ensure that unpaid super is detected and recovered earlier, before an employer collapses or disappears. In that sense, it's not a small reform; it's a modernisation of our great $3.7 trillion national saving system—the envy of the world—and it is urgent because time in superannuation is not neutral. A dollar in super delayed by three months is denied its chance to compound. Multiply that by millions of workers, and the national loss can run into the billions. Indeed, Treasury estimates that around 2.8 million Australians miss out on their full superannuation entitlements every year. Collectively, that's around $5.2 billion annually—$5.2 billion that should be building retirement savings but, instead, sits in employers' accounts or is lost entirely.

In my home state of Tasmania, the effects are even starker. I was reflecting on recent analysis by the Super Members Council, which found that 57,400 Tasmanian workers were underpaid their superannuation in the 2022-23 financial year. That's about a fifth of the entire Tasmanian workforce, so it's significant. The total value of their missing super was $83 million in just one year. I had to go back and check the Super Members Council figures myself and go into the ATO raw data because I almost didn't believe how big these numbers were. On average, each Tasmanian worker lost about $1,450—money they earned and money that should already be compounding in their retirement fund. Over six years, that added up to $443 million just in Tasmania. Tasmania is about two per cent of the national economy, and we're talking about nearly half a billion dollars drained from the savings of ordinary Tasmanians. It's money that could be put towards building homes, funding retirements and strengthening our local economy.

It's not isolated to just one region of Tasmania either. In Clark, where Hobart is based, 11,450 workers were underpaid a combined $16.9 million, and nearly $90 million across a six-year period. In Franklin, 12,000 workers were underpaid $19.2 million in that same year, and $89 million cumulatively over the six years. The story is the same across Braddon, $16.8 million; Bass, $15.7 million; and Lyons, $14.4 million. To put it simply, one in four Tasmanian workers is being short changed. It's an extraordinary figure. It's not a rounding error; it's a system failure.

Superannuation is the economic handshake between generations. Each generation works, contributes and retires with dignity without asking the next to pick up the bill. But a handshake only holds if that system delivers what it promises. When contributions are late or underpaid, the people who hurt the most are young and low-income workers, who lose the benefit of early compounding. The gender impact is also stark. Women, who are more likely to work part time or casually, are disproportionately affected. The bill is not only a fairness reform; it's an intergenerational equity reform. It ensures that a 22-year-old hospitality worker in the northern suburbs of Hobart or a 25-year-old apprentice in Devonport is treated with the same respect as a senior executive in Sydney. They should both get their super paid on time, when they earn it—no delays, no excuses.

By closing the gap on unpaid super now, we also protect future budgets. We know that every dollar that reaches a super fund on time is a dollar that won't need to be funded in the age pension later. That's a long-term cost-of-living security, delivered sustainably and fairly.

Some small businesses have expressed understandable concern about cash flow, but this reform has been designed carefully. It doesn't increase the superannuation guarantee rate; it simply changes when super is paid. The start date is not till July 2026, so it gives employers plenty of time to adapt. Most employers already use the Single Touch Payroll System, which is capable of processing super at the same time as wages. Treasury has also modernised the superannuation guarantee charge framework. The penalties are targeted and more appropriate; employers can make voluntary disclosures before assessment; and the system will focus on compliance through technology, not through paperwork. So this is a pragmatic reform—firm with noncompliance, fair with honest employers and fully achievable with modern payroll systems.

This is federal legislation, but its impact will be deeply local. In Tasmania, where the median income is around $68,000, even small improvements in superannuation timing can lift lifetime savings by thousands of dollars. For local families, that's real money, retirement security or the difference between renting and owning later in life. Tasmania also has one of the oldest populations in the country. Strengthening super now isn't just about today's workforce; it's about ensuring the next generation can retire with dignity without adding to the fiscal load of the state or Commonwealth. The bill helps keep that promise, and every dollar of super paid on time also feeds investment back into the real economy. Super funds invest in renewable energy projects, housing developments and infrastructure—including in Tasmania. By ensuring contributions flow consistently, this reform strengthens the capital base that underwrites our state's future growth.

Australians understand fairness; it's in our DNA. When you work a day, you should be paid for that day—including your super. This bill delivers on that principle. It makes the system transparent and accountable. It supports honest employees and protects workers' entitlements. It ensures that no young worker's future is sacrificed to administrative convenience or corporate delay. It is, quite simply, a promise kept: a fair day's super for a fair day's work.

In conclusion, the superannuation system is one of Australia's great social and economic achievements. It reflects a compact between generations: to save today so that we can retire tomorrow in dignity and with independence. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 strengthens that compact. It recognises that fairness delayed is fairness denied. For Tasmania, it means recovering some $83 million in lost entitlements every year. Across the nation, it means protecting $5.2 billion in earnings workers have already earned. For the next generation, it means confidence that their super is real, reliable and respected. That is why this legislation is urgent, and that is why I commend this bill to the Senate.