Submission – Superannuation advertising ban – draft regulations

The Super Members Council (SMC) supports the draft regulations endorsing limits on advertising super products during employee onboarding with certain exceptions and safeguards. Employee onboarding is a moment of acute consumer vulnerability, where small design choices in software screens and prompts can readily steer workers toward less well-performing super products which leave them poorer in retirement.

SMC supports the direction of the draft regulations and considers the framework could be strengthened further to ensure the ban operates even more effectively in real-world onboarding. In our previous submission to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on the draft Treasury Laws Amendment (Supporting Choice in Superannuation and Other Measures) Bill 2025. SMC called for stronger, more prescriptive rules to prevent design-based steering and ensure genuine member-first choice architecture, including a clear prominence hierarchy (stapled and default funds shown first and more prominently), and clearer and standardised advertising labels and disclosures. SMC encourages Treasury to revisit these recommendations as final regulations and supporting guidance are settled.