The latest APRA data shows profit-to-member super funds are continuing to lead the pack, delivering strong returns while growing their share of Australia’s retirement savings system.  

For the year to June 2026, profit-to-member funds delivered sector-leading net returns of 8.8 per cent, outperforming retail funds, which returned 7.8 per cent. Even more importantly, they have maintained a long-term performance edge, outperforming retail funds by 1.5 percentage points a year.  

That performance advantage is translating into more money in retirement for millions of everyday Australians: nurses, doctors, tradies, teachers, care workers, retail workers, and office workers.

It’s why the consumer safety reforms announced by the Government last month are so important to get right. These reforms will stop disasters like the Shield and First Guardian collapses in which lead-generation businesses used clickbait ads and cold calls to lure Australians out of safe, high-performing mainstream super funds and switched them into high-risk structures.  These disasters cost 12,000 Australians $1.2 billion in retirement savings. 

A world-class system requires world-class safeguards for consumers. These reforms will go a long way to making all Australians’ super safer. 

The profit-to-member sector has grown to almost $2.7 trillion in assets and now represents more than 56 per cent of the super system, strengthening its position as the largest part of Australia’s retirement savings landscape. The sector also continues to attract the lion’s share of contributions from workers and employers, reflecting confidence in a model that exists solely to maximise retirement outcomes for members. 

Superannuation is now paying retirees twice as much income as taxpayers provide through the Age Pension. 

That matters because every dollar funded through a retiree’s own super savings is a dollar that does not need to come from future taxpayers. As Australia’s population ages and the number of retirees grows, this becomes one of the nation’s most important economic advantages. It is why other nations look to Australia’s system as a solution to their challenges with an ageing population. 

Few public policy reforms have transformed Australians’ financial outlook as profoundly as compulsory superannuation. 

In a single generation, super has turned millions of workers into Mum and Dad investors, greatly lifted retiree incomes, and put Australia on track for the lowest Age Pension spending in the OECD by a country mile.

Any move to dismantle compulsory super would make Australians poorer, push more people onto the Age Pension, and saddle future generations with a bigger tax bill.