Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

The government will be opposing the proposed amendment by Senator Chandler. Schedules 1 and 2 of this bill are important reforms to streamline and safeguard the process for when employees provide their superannuation details to their employer during onboarding.

Australians starting a new job deserve to make an informed choice about their superannuation fund without inappropriate advertising, and schedule 1 provides greater flexibility for employers or their agents to request employees' existing stapled fund details from the ATO earlier in the onboarding process. That way, if a stapled fund exists, the employer can provide those details to the employee during onboarding to help inform their choice of fund. The schedule 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. Without schedule 1, employees remain in the dark about their existing super fund, increasing the risk of unintended duplicate accounts that can erode retirement savings.

Schedule 2 imposes a ban on advertising superannuation products to employees during onboarding, with certain exemptions. Onboarding is a key moment when employees engage with their superannuation, and they should be able to do so in an informed and safe way. Removing schedule 2 would leave the door open to more cases of inappropriate advertising as uncovered during the government's review of the Your Future, Your Super laws. The review found that some software providers are undermining stapling and directing employees towards advertised products, including those associated with the software provider. The government is committed to stop this inappropriate practice. Schedule 2 will protect employees from being unduly influenced to make uninformed decisions, open inappropriate products and unintentionally create duplicate accounts.

Taken together, these are sensible, important reforms that will streamline and safeguard an employee's superannuation choice during onboarding. Legislating these amendments now is critical to ensure employees are protected as soon as possible and to give employers more timely and accurate superannuation details to support their readiness for the government's payday super reforms. Hence we will be opposing this.