"For many workers, superannuation contributions are made when they are paid. It seems uncontroversial. But that's not the case for all workers. This is a norm, not a universal practice. Currently, employers are required to pay superannuation guarantee contributions quarterly. Too often, this leeway has meant superannuation contributions are made late or sometimes not at all. The cost of this is fairly obvious: workers are not only missing out on what they're entitled to but losing out on enjoying their comfort in retirement. ... We will fix this."

Address to the House of Representatives, Bills - Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 and the Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Bill 2025

Wednesday 29 October 2025

I'm also pleased to rise to speak to this legislative package: the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 and the Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Bill 2025. This is truly one of the landmark pieces of legislation that will be passed in this term of parliament, and I commend my friend the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services for so ably bringing this before the House.

The Assistant Treasurer and I, back in the day, worked together in retail at the Woden Plaza while finishing our schooling years. That experience is, for me, a reminder that super should be paid on every dollar a person earns. So it should actually be paid to under-18s and on employer funded parental leave and other payments. Most certainly it should be paid on payday.

The super system sets young workers up for distrust, in that what is on their pay slip is not in their account. Sometimes that's because their super has been stolen. They're overrepresented in wage theft, as well as super theft. And sometimes it's because the payments are so inconsistent with the information on the pay slip. The critical thing to know about this legislation is that these changes will help prevent super theft, and young people will be able to see their superannuation in their super fund at the same time as they can see their wages in their bank account.

Make no mistake. This is a significant legislative package. We are debating a legislative change which will impact every single working Australian. We don't often get to say that here, but it will. And this legislation will provide every single Australian with greater protections and fairness. We don't often get to say that either.

When our great predecessors on this side of the House introduced compulsory superannuation, they did so with two key things in mind. First, with an ageing population, creating a superannuation system would protect future governments from unsustainable social security budgets. Second, compulsory superannuation would ensure all workers could enjoy dignity and comfort in retirement. Superannuation wasn't a new concept to Hawke or Keating or their governments, but it was not widespread. It was a benefit enjoyed by white-collar and professional workers. In 1974, as an example, only 32.2 per cent of Australian workers enjoyed superannuation benefits. Everyone else had to rely on pensions or some other way of living in retirement. It wasn't a fair situation, and that's why Labor and Labor governments changed it.

Since the introduction of compulsory superannuation, we have seen the growth of an amazing quantum of funds, which are being invested around Australia and the world, having an extraordinary and positive economic impact. Unambiguously and specifically, compulsory superannuation has been a complete success. We, on this side of the House, are proud with what we've achieved with superannuation, and we will always stand up to make it fairer and better, and that's what we are doing today with this legislative package.

But let's come to the key issue that this legislative package will address. For many workers, superannuation contributions are made when they are paid. It seems uncontroversial. But that's not the case for all workers. This is a norm, not a universal practice. Currently, employers are required to pay superannuation guarantee contributions quarterly. Too often, this leeway has meant superannuation contributions are made late or sometimes not at all. The cost of this is fairly obvious: workers are not only missing out on what they're entitled to but losing out on enjoying their comfort in retirement.

We will fix this through the passing of this package. From 1 July next year, 2026, employers will be required to pay superannuation contributions when they pay their employees, not later. To back up this requirement, employers will be required to ensure that these contributions are received by the employee's super fund within seven business days of payday. Again, it really shouldn't be controversial. But for workers this will mean it will be easier to track their superannuation contributions. We know from experience that it's easy to track and recover unpaid superannuation contributions earlier and that the longer they go unpaid the harder they are to recover.

For employers who do the wrong thing, this legislative package articulates a larger punishment. The superannuation guarantee charge is the penalty employees face if they don't pay superannuation on time. This legislation will ensure that the superannuation guarantee charge will apply for each payday that employers fail to pay the superannuation contribution.

All of this will be underpinned by the strengthening of the cop on the beat. We have committed $404.1 million to support the implementation of an enhanced capability for the Australian Taxation Office to use Single Touch Payroll data from employers and match it with superannuation funds to identify missed payments and take action in real time.

The ATO will take a facilitative compliance approach over the first year of the operation of this legislation. It's not our intention to punish employers wanting to be compliant and do the right thing. On the contrary, we will work with them. But for those deliberately underpaying and engaging in withholding superannuation the ATO is coming for you.

We need this legislation. We know what the cost of unpaid superannuation is. The Australian Taxation Office estimates that in 2021-22 alone unpaid superannuation amounted to $5.2 billion. That is an eye-watering sum, but the sheer size of the figure alone is not what is most troubling. For millions of workers, this figure represents a loss of entitlements, of a comfort in retirement earned over many years of hard work. We can quantify what this loss looks like.

The ATO conducts multiple investigations into unpaid superannuation matters, and from these investigations we know that an average 35-year-old missing out on two years worth of contributions will face a reduction in their retirement savings of around $32,000 each. That is an extraordinary loss, and it will significantly increase the chance that such a worker in that situation will need to draw on the support of our social security system—completely missing the point of having superannuation in the first place.

Across Australia, 28 per cent of workers were impacted by unpaid superannuation in 2022-23. This correlates to a total of 5.7 billion in unpaid superannuation over that period. That represents a $600 million increase from the previous year. This is a problem that is only growing worse. We cannot afford to leave this unchecked. We cannot afford to delay the implementation of this scheme.

Superannuation is more than a numbers game. It's an invaluable entitlement that Australian workers have earned and have earned the right to enjoy. But numbers do help to tell the story, to help us understand the bigger picture and why we need to pass this legislation and make these changes. Let's talk about how unpaid superannuation affects workers in my community of Bean.

In 2022-23, 20 per cent of workers in the ACT were impacted by unpaid superannuation. In my own electorate of Bean, 19 per cent of workers were affected. Think about that percentage: one in five. That is a significant slice of the workforce, a significant slice of every electorate that we're here to represent. Drilling down, that's over 13,000 workers across Bean missing out on an average of $2,600 in superannuation payments per year. Added together, that's $34 million in unpaid superannuation in Bean alone over 2022-23. That's an extraordinary and unacceptable figure. Over that same period, workers in the ACT missed out on $89 million in superannuation contributions.

Who are these workers who are owed superannuation? We have a good picture of these workers. These are disproportionately younger workers and those in insecure work. These are the workers for whom compulsory superannuation was developed in the first place. They cannot afford to miss out on their retirement savings and the benefits of superannuation. They are not an abstraction; they are working in Westfield Woden, at South.Point in Tuggeranong across the road from my electorate office, or at Cooleman Court in Weston Creek. They work hard, and they deserve all their entitlements. This government, with this legislation, is proudly fighting for those workers and their entitlements. There should be no doubt from anyone in this place or outside it that this government is committed to looking after working Australians and will act to achieve this.

I would like to conclude by again congratulating my friend the Assistant Treasurer for bringing this important legislation forward. It's been a long journey since the days at Big W Woden. I'm proud to serve with him in a government which will always fight for working Australians, and I'm proud to serve alongside a broader Labor movement that ensures that legislation like this is supported and brought to the House. It's the responsibility of members across every electorate in this country, regardless of political affiliation, to stand up for the one in five employees, at a minimum, in their constituencies who are missing out. If you don't stand up for those workers, you are betraying those workers, a significant group of Australians who deserve better. This government is committed to delivering better for those workers.