Our Super Policy Priorities 2025
Super now supports millions of everyday Australians to retire with more income, dignity and freedom. Before Australia’s modern super system was created, most people survived on just the age pension in retirement.
Today, nine in ten Australian workers have super – and a typical Australian now reaches retirement with around $200,000. An average 30-year-old today is forecast to have $500,000 as they retire.
Super now pays out twice as much each year in income as the age pension, significantly lifting living standards and cutting costs for taxpayers. The share of Australians who now need to rely on any age pension at all when they turn 67 has fallen from 71% in 2003 to 39% in 2023.
Australia’s modern super system was created in 1992 with introduction of the Superannuation Guarantee. It established a minimum, near universal, employment entitlement to super.
At the heart of the system was a bargain: a portion of workers savings would be set aside for their future, in exchange for a lower tax rate on their retirement savings.
Since then, successive Australian Governments have continued super’s evolution, extending its effectiveness and efficiency, making it fairer, and adding greater consumer protections. Successive governments have also remained committed to the system’s fundamentals: a compulsory and universal system with savings preserved until retirement.
Through super, everyone shares in the income generated by Australian and global businesses and investments, not just the wealthy. Due to its scale and long-term investment time frames, super has been able to deliver strong investment returns for everyday Australians, create new jobs and build new houses for Australians to buy.
As with all intergenerational policies, super must continue to be strengthened. We must ensure the system is fair, that it is stable, and that it delivers on its promise to Australians. Super is Australians’ money for their retirement – they rightly expect and deserve the highest standards of service from their funds and their service providers.
Download SMC’s key policy priorities document, which highlights improvements to super that will further strengthen the super system and ensure it continues to deliver strong financial security to Australians in retirement.