Josh Dolega (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge and echo a lot the words of Senator McKim in relation to his contribution on schedule 5. But I start off today to rise in support of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Supporting Choice in Superannuation and Other Measures) Bill 2025. The core of this bill is about ensuring that working people have a genuine choice when it comes to their superannuation. It's about making sure that workers can choose their own super fund when they start a new job without pressure, without confusion and without being steered towards products that serve big corporate interests instead of their own. It's a simple principle. Workers should be able to make an informed decision about their own money. No worker should be pushed into a fund that isn't right for them just because they didn't know their options or they felt pressured to during their onboarding at work. Labor has always stood up for workers, and this bill continues that work.

Schedule 1 of the bill will update the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act to make choosing your super fund simpler. It builds on previous reforms which were introduced to make the system fairer and more transparent and to stop duplicate accounts from draining away workers' savings through duplicate fees. When it comes to stapling, which is where your super fund follows you from job to job, that was part of that. It helps working people avoid paying extra fees, and the bill strengthens those reforms by making it simpler for workers to continue or stay connected with their existing fund when they start a new job. That clarity can save workers thousands of dollars across their working lives.

Schedule 2 will amend the Corporations Act to ban the targeted advertising of superannuation products to workers during onboarding, with some exceptions. This just makes sense. A new job should just be a fresh start—an opportunity to build new skills, meet new colleagues and contribute to your workplace. It should not be an opportunity for vested interests to push sometimes shonky financial products that may not be in a worker's best interests. Workers deserve honest information, not pressure, and this bill makes sure that workers are supported at this key decision-making point. To be clear, this bill will reduce the risk of workers being induced or influenced to choose a super product that is not appropriate to their needs or creating yet another super account that may be detrimental to those savings.

Together, these changes strengthen consumer protections and make sure working people can trust the system and their employers to do right by them. Workers shouldn't end up in the wrong fund because they weren't given clear information, and they certainly shouldn't have anyone pushing them towards a product that isn't in their best interests. In saying that, I encourage all workers to take a keen interest in their super and to look at the many great industry super funds in the market that are owned by their members. This is in stark contrast to retail funds that are delivering for the likes of the big banks.

This bill matters to all Australians, including my constituents in Tasmania. People deserve clear, honest information about their retirement savings, and they deserve transparency and control over their savings. This is just one part of the work that the Albanese Labor government is doing. We've already passed payday super, one of the most significant reforms for worker protection in decades. It ensures that workers get paid their super as they earn it. The ATO found that $5.2 billion in super wasn't paid in 2021-22, and that's $100 million a week taken from working people. From 1 July this year, employers will have to pay super at the same time as wages, and workers will get what they're owed, on time, every time. I'd like to congratulate the many trade unions that fought tirelessly on behalf of workers to get better outcomes for their super.

With this bill that we're debating today, these reforms will make sure workers have better information and better protections. That's what Labor does, and that's what the mighty trade union movement has done for more than a century. It has protected workers' rights, expanded opportunities and built a fairer society. This is just one example. Last year, we passed Baby Priya's bill which protected paid parental leave entitlements for families experiencing unthinkable tragedy. We've strengthened penalty rates and overtime protections. We've delivered 'same job, same pay' laws, putting thousands of dollars into workers' pockets. We've modernised bargaining. We've introduced the right to disconnect, and we've criminalised wage theft and improved job security. We have worked to close the gender pay and superannuation gaps. By expanding paid parental leave, paying super on paid parental leave and increasing the low-income super tax offset from $500 to $800, while lifting the eligibility threshold, we're supporting 1.3 million low-income earners. Sixty per cent of those are women.

Labor has always fought for workers, as have the generations of union members, delegates, organisers and leaders who built the foundations of Australia's workplace protections. Together, we have delivered compulsory super. We've delivered the eight-hour day. We've delivered strengthened protections for weekends and annual leave. We've delivered sick leave, and we have had protections against unfair dismissal. These rights were hard fought for and won by working people who organised and were determined in their fight for fairness. Today, we're strengthening super once again. Only a Labor government stands with workers. Only Labor governments protect Australian super. This bill is another step in helping workers to earn more, to keep more of what they earn and to retire with more.

I'd also like to also touch on schedule 5 of the bill and some of the amendments that are before the chamber—in particular, One Nation's and Senator Chandler's amendments to exclude Equality Australia as a deductible gift recipient. I can't say I'm surprised that we have that coming from the cookers, homophobes and you name it who stand for dividing people, but I am quite surprised that that's coming from the opposition, and I would urge many of the considered people on that side to not support those amendments.

Just the other morning, the Parliamentary Friends of LGBTIQ+ Australians had a wonderful morning reception. It was well attended, including by members of the opposition, which I was really heartened to see. I would ask and plead with people to stand up against—