Latest news
SMC Post Federal Budget Webinar 2026-27
13/05/2026
Join Super Members Council CEO Misha Schubert, along with Executive General Manager Strategy & Insights Matt Linden, as they unpack the 2026 Budget. With two decades of experience each in offering powerful analysis of Federal Budgets and economic policy settings, Misha and Matt will delve into both the broader economic context and all the details on the Budget’s super decisions, with compelling insights and behind-the-scenes detail.
Budget 2026: Economic storm clouds spur generational reform
12/05/2026
What's in the budget for super? $17.8 million over four years will be provided to strengthen governance requirements and supervision of managed Investment Schemes (including $10.3 million to ASIC), with this funding to be partially met through cost recovery.
The shocking figure that explains why payday super is needed
08/05/2026
When Coco* asked her former boss why she hadn’t been paid her super, she was told “not to worry, it’s paid quarterly”. But as time went by, and with red flags flying ominously, she felt helpless. Despite months of enquiries and reassurances that payment would come, her worst fears were realised when her employer went into liquidation. This left her and colleagues without thousands of dollars in super payments they had earned and were legally owed. Almost every week we hear similar stories to Coco’s. Many follow a similar pattern, where a lack of awareness and assumed trust, combined with an out-of-date obligation on employers to only pay super every three months, allows unpaid super to flourish.
The wealth gap women cannot ignore
07/05/2026
Your super isn’t a side account. It’s your future income, your future choices, and your future independence. In this podcast episode, Kerry Towndrow from Financial IQ podcast sat down with Misha Schubert, CEO, Super Members Council, to unpack the real drivers behind Australia’s gender super gap — and why it’s one of the most important financial issues women face today. The episode explores why women retire with significantly less super and how structural factors — from career breaks and part‑time work to relationship dynamics and policy gaps — compound over a lifetime to shape women’s financial futures.
A big change is coming to super – and it’s good news for workers
05/05/2026
From 1 July 2026, super will start being paid at the same time as wages, not quarterly. This reform – known as payday super – is one of the most important improvements to Australia’s super system in decades. It’s designed to make sure workers are paid the super they have earned, on time and in full. For most people, nothing about their job or pay will change day to day. What will change is when super moves from an employer to a worker’s super account – and that timing matters.
Payday super is coming: how employers can prepare with confidence
05/05/2026
From 1 July 2026, the way super is paid will change. Super contributions will need to be paid at the same time as wages, not quarterly. This reform – often called payday super – is designed to fix a long‑standing problem in Australia’s super system: workers not being paid the super they’re owed. Over the past five years, Australians have missed out on $24.4 billion in unpaid super, affecting millions of workers. It’s a problem that will put real pressure on household finances in retirement by denying individual workers tens of thousands of extra savings for life after work.
Keep Calm and Carry On
03/04/2026
Ahead of the outbreak of war in 1939, Britain’s Ministry of Information produced a poster with the wartime slogan ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. While it was never released nor found until it surfaced on a bookshelf in Northumberland in 2000 – due to its original intent of offering reassurance in the event of Germany invading Britain – the latent Victorian-era stoicism in the message is popular in times of adversity and uncertainty.
The super loophole that needs closing
01/05/2026
It often takes a tragic story to bring home the need to change a law. When 22-year-old Molly Wilkes died in 2022 after years of severe domestic abuse, her family faced a further shock. Under Australia’s superannuation laws, the man who had abused her was legally entitled to claim her superannuation death benefit. There was no discretion for the fund to block the payment.
Scouring the globe for the best deals
24/04/2026
This week the Super Members Council and senior leaders from Australia’s industry super funds were in France and the United Kingdom, meeting with governments, infrastructure owners and investment partners. The goal was simple: find high‑quality long‑term investment opportunities that grow members’ retirement savings. Australia’s super system is now the fourth‑largest in the world, and it’s growing fast. More than 60 cents of every new dollar flowing into super is already invested offshore, and within five years Australia is expected to have the largest pool of retirement savings outside the United States.
Cleaners, housekeepers and nannies have a right to super too
17/04/2026
Australia’s super system was designed to be universal to ensure people share in the benefits of long‑term investment and retire with greater security. But one little‑known rule still undermines that promise for tens of thousands of workers. Under outdated regulations, cleaners, housekeepers and nannies employed in private homes are excluded from guaranteed super if they work fewer than 30 hours a week for a single employer. The result is a structural loophole that disproportionately affects women and strips retirement savings from people doing essential, paid work.
Super: the quiet revolution for middle Australia
27/03/2026
There is a key reason why compulsory super remains trusted and popular with the public and that’s because it has quietly revolutionised living standards in retirement for millions of everyday Australians. One key figure in a new report we launched this week illuminates its impact: retirement wealth for middle Australia has tripled over the past 20 years, with superannuation the central driver of that transformation. Between 2002 and 2022, non‑housing wealth for middle‑wealth retirees grew by 196 per cent, leaving them more than $256,000 better off in retirement. That is not a marginal improvement — it is a structural shift in who gets to retire with security and dignity.
SMC welcomes launch of Parliamentary Friends of Super
26/03/2026
The Super Members Council is proud to have supported the launch of Parliamentary Friends of Superannuation at Parliament House in Canberra last night, bringing together an excellent turnout of MPs and Senators from right across the political spectrum in their shared stewardship of super to deliver for 17 million everyday Australians. The non-partisan friendship group was newly formed last year with wide representation of MPs and Senators from across the Parliament by co-chairs Senator Lisa Darmanin, Senator Nick McKim and Pat Conaghan MP – who has now handed the co-chair baton to newly-appointed Shadow Assistant Treasurer Kevin Hogan. Australia’s super system is the envy of the world, playing a key role in strengthening household financial security, delivering higher retirement incomes for millions of Australians, and driving economic growth.
Make super work better for First Nations people
20/03/2026
Our new report, A fair retirement: Removing barriers in super for First Nations peoples, launched this week provides a roadmap for industry, regulators and government to help uplift service standards and experiences for First Nations people. It makes clear that while progress has been made, structural barriers remain embedded across the system. First Nations people continue to earn significantly less on average in the workforce than non-Indigenous Australians, are more likely to have insecure jobs, and have lower lifetime super contributions as a result. And while the percentage of Australian workers covered by the nation’s super system has risen from 85% in 2002 to 92% in 2022, First Nations super coverage still isn’t equal, rising from 70% to 78% in the same timeframe.
Do not lock in losses: a calmer way to ride market ups and downs
17/03/2026
When investment markets fall and your super balance drops, the impulse to 'do something' can be overwhelming. You might feel tempted to switch from, say, growth options to cash or conservative investments to 'protect what's left'. But here's the uncomfortable truth: switching during a downturn often locks in losses and means you miss the recovery. Australia's super system is designed to grow your retirement savings long-term, even as markets experience volatility. It’s good to remember that volatility is just noise; diversification and a long-term investment timeframe is your seatbelt.
LISTO Unfrozen
13/03/2026
Former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson is believed to have been the origin of the phrase “a week is a long time in politics”, and Canberra this week was a case in point. Leadership changes, global tensions and political drama crowded the headlines. But amid all that noise, Parliament quietly passed one of the most important super reforms in years, with the Senate approving the Government’s Building a Stronger and Fairer Super System Bill 2026 on Tuesday.
Click bait and cold calls about super. Here is what to do
12/03/2026
Your superannuation (super) represents decades of hard work and savings built for retirement. As the super system matures and member balances grow, it's becoming increasingly targeted by social media advertising that can lead to cold calls (uninvited callers seeking access to your money) – but you have the power to shut them down. The message is simple: ignore, slow down and check the facts.
A goose well looked after lays golden eggs
06/03/2026
SMC this week launched its first national education initiative, designed to transform how Australians think and feel about their super. For too many people, super is a distant abstraction. Research consistently shows disengagement is widespread — and it’s worse among younger Australians. A January 2026 ideally survey confirmed what many in the system already know: super feels confusing, remote and easy to put off.
When you understand super, you are more likely to take actions that will improve your retirement
02/03/2026
SMC has launched a new national education initiative to encourage younger Australians to start looking after their super today using a simple idea: look after your super like your own golden goose, so it can grow and look after you for life. The ‘Look after your super’ initiative uses a distinctive creative concept – the Golden Super Goose – to help more younger Australians better understand how super works, why it matters, and how even small actions today can mean you have more money in retirement.
New switching behaviour on low super balances
27/02/2026
Newly released data from SMC this week shows switching between super funds has been accelerating sharply – up 17% over the past year – but not for the reasons you might think. Rather than older retirees with high balances moving money to coincide with changes in life circumstances, switching activity is now being dominated by younger Australians with lower super balances.
Young Aussies checked out from super
20/02/2026
If you surveyed a bunch of people asking them how many times they checked their bank account, you would expect that figure to be once a week or month for most people, right? What if you changed the question to asking people how many times they check their super balance? We did this with more than 1,300 Australians recently and found that more than a third of young Australians either seldom check their super or only check it once a year.
A good start on consumer protections that doesn’t go far enough
13/02/2026
This week the Federal Government tipped out the first instalment of consultation on urgently needed consumer safety reforms, focussing on glaring gaps in oversight and governance of Managed Investment Schemes. A good first step though it was, the paper fell short of the distance of travel required to protect Australians from Shield and First Guardian-style collapses.
12,000 Australians losing $1.2 billion of their life savings is a crisis that must initiate change
06/02/2026
The collapse of the Shield and First Guardian schemes has exposed, with painful clarity, just how vulnerable Australians can be when the guardrails around their retirement savings fail. 12,000 Australians losing $1.2 billion of their life savings is a crisis that must initiate change. What’s clear is the regulatory settings are not fit for purpose. The gaps are wide, and Australians are paying the price.
Unfreezing the LISTO is only half the job
30/01/2026
Let's talk Low‑Income Super Tax Offset (LISTO). Earlier this month, we finalised our submission to the Government’s Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions exposure draft legislation. Last October, the Government committed to unfreezing the LISTO for the first time in 13 years. This was an important fairness fix many of us had been advocating for years.
5 stats to mark a super year
19/12/2025
2025 has been a big year for superannuation with the Super Guarantee finally reaching 12%, super now being paid on Commonwealth Parental Leave, payday super legislation passing Parliament and the Low Income Super Tax Offset (LISTO) receiving a surprise but much needed boost. We’ve been busy crunching the numbers all year at SMC. Here is our pick of the best from what we found.