Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025, Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Bill 2025

Ms STEGGALL (Warringah) (12:56): Australia's superannuation system is one of our great national achievements, and ensuring confidence in this system is essential to our economy and our way of life. This bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025, presents an important and overdue step in strengthening the integrity of our superannuation system.

The bill will help ensure that Australians receive what they are owed when they are owed it, helping their superannuation balances grow through compounding interest and giving workers greater transparency and trust in the system. I welcome this reform, but I urge the government to ensure that small businesses are properly supported through its implementation, because there is no doubt—and many of them have raised concerns with me about this—that, in some situations, it will be difficult to manage.

Small businesses must not be an afterthought in this process. They must be integral to it. From the cafes and surf shops of Manly to the tech startups of Brookvale and the innovation hub of North Sydney, Warringah is full of small businesses, as are many other areas around Australia.

They are the employers, innovators and community builders who drive our local economy. I speak regularly with business owners across the electorate, and they care deeply about their employees and are committed to paying fair wages and superannuation. But many are struggling under the weight of rising costs, from rent and insurance to energy prices, and the ongoing challenge of finding and retaining staff.

That is the reality they must consider. These small businesses are not resisting reform; they simply need adequate time, guidance and support to implement it properly. They also need to be sure that, for example, the ATO is not overly aggressive in pursuing them from a regulatory point of view.

Under current arrangements, employers can pay superannuation up to three months after wages are paid. This delay has created confusion, reduced transparency and often resulted in unpaid entitlements, so it is right that it is rectified. The Australian Taxation Office estimates that over $5 billion in superannuation goes unpaid each year, and we know who is hit the hardest by this: young people, women, and those in casual and insecure jobs.

These are the people who already face barriers to building financial security, so it is good that from now on the delay in payment of super is going to be addressed. From 1 July 2026, this bill will require employers to ensure that superannuation contributions reach employees' funds within seven business days of payday. This will align superannuation payments with wage payments, making the system more transparent, easier to track and fairer for workers.

It will also allow issues with nonpayment to be identified and resolved much more quickly, before they grow to be problems that are unsurmountable. So I welcome this bill as a necessary reform that will help protect Australians' retirement savings. The government must still work closely with the business community, accountants and software providers to ensure that payroll systems and compliance frameworks are ready in time.

Small and medium businesses make up up to 97 per cent of Australian businesses. They employ around 70 per cent of private sector workers and contribute more than half of Australia's GDP, yet many are facing serious financial pressures. A recent MYOB business monitor found that one in three small businesses reported a fall in revenue at the end of 2025, and a quarter said that they were struggling to maintain cash flow.

For these businesses, the move to payday super will require new systems, new processes and cash-flow adjustments, and, in some cases, it may actually put their business's viability in question. For some, it may be the largest administrative change since the introduction of the GST, and that is why the rollout must be handled carefully and with supports. The Australian Taxation Office should provide clear, accessible guidance, online tools and targeted education.

I also encourage the government to consider a longer transition period or a staged implementation for small businesses to allow a smooth and successful transition or, at the very least, ensure that the ATO has a process that is going to work with small business, rather than just a big stick. The superannuation system is one of Australia's great social and economic achievements, ensuring people can retire with dignity and maintain independence, and this bill strengthens that achievement.

It promotes transparency and accountability in how superannuation is paid and managed. But I urge the government to walk alongside small businesses to make it work and ensure this reform delivers for both—protecting workers' futures while supporting small businesses that keep our community strong. We can't talk about superannuation without acknowledging the ongoing gender pay gap when it comes to superannuation balances.

Whilst the government has moved when it comes to superannuation on paid parental leave, for example, there is still a complete lack of policy when it comes to carers—the older generation. I am a classic case, although I don't happen to have experienced it myself at this point, of the sandwich generation that has gone through caring for children and is now caring for elderly parents.

There is nothing in the system that supports those women, and we know women over 55 are the fastest growing group facing homelessness and do not have superannuation parity. There is a system of special occupations—in relation to sportspeople and artists, for example—where there is provision to average out income and tax rates and super contributions over a period of up to five years to allow for fluctuating incomes.

I put to the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce, when it was led by our now Governor-General, that such a scheme should be considered for those with caring responsibilities so that, when someone of a certain age takes time out of employment to care for relatives, they have an opportunity, upon returning to the workforce, to make up for that time—in particular, in relation to their superannuation balance—through an averaging capacity, as is allowed in certain occupations.

I urge the government to start thinking outside the box about how we are going to fix the superannuation inequity and imbalance between genders. Whilst I hope that, in the future, the inequity isn't so stark, because of changes that have occurred gradually, we cannot forget the generation that is caught with that gap and is facing great disadvantage, so I urge the government to keep looking at those questions of financial gender equity, especially in retirement.