REGULATIONS AND DETERMINATIONS
Senator BARBARA POCOCK (South Australia) (18:18): I move: That paragraph 11(f) in item 18 of Schedule 1 to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Regulations 2026, made under the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992, be disallowed [F2026L00133]. I rise today in support of a simple proposition: that young people deserve every dollar they've earned, including their super.
The Greens will always stand up for young people—indeed for all people—and for decent pay and conditions for all Australian workers. We are here to make things better in a cost-of-living crisis. Labor's platform supports what we are here to support, but here today Labor don't want to pay super to all workers under 18.
That's the question. And we say to Labor: why wait? The Greens want to pay super to all workers under 18, and we can do it from tomorrow.
And that's why we're here in the Senate fighting to secure super payments for all under-18s, no matter how many hours you work. Currently, young workers are excluded from receiving super unless they work more than 30 hours a week and are over 18. Ninety-three per cent of those young people work less than 30 hours a week, so it's not a small carve-out; it's a massive carve out.
It's not a technical anomaly. It's the rule for almost every young worker in this country. And it's a straightforward discrimination.
It's a discrimination against young people based on age. It's a discrimination based on part-time work. And it's a discrimination, therefore, against women.
Women are more negatively affected by this provision because more of them work part time. The Greens support payday super. Workers should be paid their super at the same time they're paid their wages.
It's simple, fair and long overdue. But, today, we deal with a glaring injustice that Labor knows is wrong and has chosen to leave in place. Under these regulations, 515,000 young workers—they're out there tonight stacking shelves, serving burgers, making coffees and cleaning tables—will continue to be denied superannuation simply because they're under 18 and work less than 30 hours a week.
They're currently being robbed of an estimated $405 million in super contributions. That was in last year alone. Let's be clear about what this means at 17 years old, you can work hard and you can pay tax, remembering they are paid a lot less than the adults they work alongside.
A 17-year-old is earning around 57 per cent of an adult rate. A 16-year-old is earning around 47 per cent of an adult rate, and a 15-year-old is earning around 40 per cent of what an adult earns. In too many cases, they're doing exactly the same work, they know exactly as much as the person alongside them, and they're paid, in the case of a 15-year-old, 40 per cent of what that adult earns.
They can contribute to their workplace. They're contributing to the economy, and, in too many cases right now, they're also contributing to putting food on the table in their family household in this cost-of-living crisis. When it comes to the retirement savings, Labor has said to these young people that, somehow, their work does not count when it comes to super.
It's an outrageous double standard and a historic anomaly that must be cleaned up. More than 500,000 young Australians are expected to miss out on super because of this loophole, and the cost of everything, as we know, has gone up. Wages haven't kept up with inflation.
We all in this place know and Labor know how hard it is for young people in a cost-of-living crisis, and yet, to date, they've chosen to prevent young people from accessing the money they need for a safe retirement. Who benefits from this situation? Who benefits?
Not workers and not young people. The beneficiaries are some of the largest and most profitable corporations in Australia—the major supermarkets, fast food giants and retail chains making billions in profits while employing armies of young workers on incredibly low pay. These companies can afford to pay for super for these young people.
Many simply choose not to do so because the law lets them off the hook, so it's time for that to change. So far, Labor, regrettably, has decided to protect that loophole. Why would you do that?
Why wouldn't you address it for those hundreds of thousands of young workers? We know, from a Senate inquiry on this issue, the Greens compelled the largest employers of young people in Australia to disclose whether or not they paid super to young workers under 18, and the results are absolutely damning. Most large employers of young Australians do not provide under-18 workers with this basic workplace entitlement, despite raking in massive profits off the back of their labour.
Our inquiry found that companies like Coles, Woolworths, Kmart, Target, Chemist Warehouse, Hungry Jack's and McDonalds employ tens of thousands of teenagers yet still refuse to pay super unless those workers meet outdated minimum hours thresholds. Meanwhile, these same corporations are raking in enormous profits. It's $1.08 billion for Coles; $1.38 billion for Woolworths; nearly $600 million for Chemist Warehouse; almost $2.9 billion for Wesfarmers, which owns Kmart and Target; and McDonald's global profits—wait for it!—exceed $13 billion.
This is not about whether big business can afford to pay super to young workers. They clearly can. The fact that some employers, such as Bunnings, Aldi, JB Hi-Fi and Priceline choose to pay their 18-year-old workers superannuation regardless of how many hours they work, shows that this is possible.
These employers know these workers deserve it. It's a fair thing, and they are making sure they do it, leaving all of those other very large, very profitable billion bottom lines subsidised by a 12 per cent pay contribution from some of the poorest and lowest paid workers in our economy. Instead, the vast majority of those large employers are using a business model that relies on insecure, low paid teenage labour while denying those workers the same retirement benefits as everyone else.
Along with collecting evidence from large employers, the inquiry also heard stories from young workers impacted by this exclusion. The shop assistants' submission provided testimony of young workers experiencing this pay discrimination. For example: Sarah is 18 and has been working since she was 15.
She works at a discount department. $3000 is what Sarah's super balance could have exceeded by now if contributions had been paid while she was under 18, nearly three times what she has now. Asked, how do you feel about that, Sarah said, "Not good.
That is a lot of money [unpaid], and I'm doing the same work, that's just not fair." This exclusion entrenches lower lifetime savings before workers even turn 18. The system is designed to disadvantage people at the very moment they enter the workforce. Treasurer Chalmers said that he talked about this issue with a delegation of young workers just last week.
He knows this is a huge loophole. The question is whether he will work to close it. This morning the Treasurer expressed a willingness to continue to engage on this issue.
He knows we need to act. Young Australians are leaning on the Treasurer. 'Listen to our voices,' they are asking; 'Give us justice on our retirement earnings. If we are old enough to work, to pay tax, we are old enough to be paid super, regardless of the hours we work and regardless of our age.' It would be shocking if Labor opposed this disallowance—truly shocking—when you look at their national platform.
If they oppose it they are voting against their own national platform. Labor's 2023 national platform states that 'all workers must receive their full entitlement to superannuation'. It also says that Labor 'will ensure that superannuation is paid on every dollar earned so that, across a lifetime, Australians don't fall behind and gain the benefits of compound interest to support a dignified retirement'—so true, so important.
That's a direct quote from Labor policy. Further, it says that Labor will 'work with unions and employers to examine gaps in the superannuation system and, where possible, close those gaps for young workers'. Well, how long do you need, Labor?
Let's do this now. We Greens are ready to work with you to protect our kids' earnings and fix this incredibly unfair anomaly. Labor's 2026 draft national platform, currently in the consultation stage, says that Labor 'will support young workers by advocating for the accumulation of superannuation on every dollar spent'.
Well, Labor, here's your chance. Labor often says that no worker should be left behind, but the Labor Party's inaction to date speaks louder than words. It's extraordinary.
It's time to fix this. Every dollar of super paid early in life has decades to compound. It's the basic principle of superannuation.
Missing out on super as a teenager can mean thousands, potentially tens of thousands, of dollars at retirement. We've seen estimates that put, for the average young person, a loss at retirement of between $7,000 and $18,000. That is a lot of money.
This is a fair entitlement for those young people. They are paid incredibly low wages when they're 15, 16 and 17. Why would we cut their pay even further by not paying them the superannuation they are entitled to?
It's unfair to young people, and it needs to be fixed. At a time when young people are facing a housing crisis, rising rents, insecure work and declining living standards, this parliament should not be taking money out of their future pockets—12 per cent in every pay packet—and giving it to the bottom line of some of Australia's most wealthy and most profitable huge corporations, who count their profits in the billions.
Young Australians are already being asked to carry more than their fair share. They should not also be expected to subsidise the profits of those very large multinational fast-food chains and the supermarket giants. So let's be clear.
If Labor don't do this, they are backing the wealthy one per cent over the young people in this wealthy country. And it's against their own policy. They know this is the right thing to do, and we in the Greens want to see it happen now—no delay.
It's time. It's overdue. Labor's asking young workers to subsidise the profits of those very large companies, the most profitable in our nation, by allowing them to continue to not pay super to those young people who are on less than 30 hours a week, Labor cannot credibly argue that superannuation is an essential workplace entitlement whilst simultaneously maintaining that more than a million young workers should remain outside the system altogether.
Last year, Labor had a chance to back young workers when we moved an amendment in November to grant all young workers the right to superannuation contributions from their employers. They squibbed it. They opposed it.
A party that leaves young workers out isn't a party for workers. Now Labor has an opportunity to right this wrong. It's simple.
It can be done. It is possible, it is fair and it should be done. If this Labor government genuinely cares about young workers and about young people, it has no excuse but to support this disallowance.
The Greens will continue to stand with young workers and fight to close this loophole. We will stand with anyone in this parliament to make sure the loophole is closed for fairness for those young people and their households. This parliament must stand with those young people and make this change now.
Debate adjourned.