Media Release

Overwhelming public support for compulsory superannuation and increasing the SG to 12%

Published 31 May, 2019

Published 31 May, 2019

31 May 2019

Overwhelming public support for compulsory superannuation and increasing the SG to 12%

Recent polling for ASFA indicates that an overwhelming majority of Australians support the current compulsory superannuation system and want to see the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) increased to 12 per cent of wages.

CoreData surveyed a representative sample of 1,000 Australians in order to collect their views on the compulsory superannuation system and their desired standard of living in retirement.

A significant majority of those surveyed (over 90 per cent) support, or strongly support, compulsory superannuation, with nearly 70 per cent indicating that they strongly support it. Levels of support for the current system also were very much the same across households with different levels of household income.

The overwhelming majority of respondents also supported or strongly supported the scheduled increase in the SG to 12 per cent, with around 80 per cent of respondents across a range of demographics either supporting or strongly supporting the increase.

Australians also want more in retirement than what the Age Pension alone can provide. Around 80 per cent of those surveyed would like to be able to spend at least what is set in the ASFA Comfortable Retirement Standards, which are around $43,300 for a home owning single person and $61,000 for home owning couples.

“The Australian compulsory superannuation system is one of the great successes of public policy in Australia and it receives strong support from the Australian community,” explained Dr Martin Fahy, CEO, Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).

“Australians deserve to enjoy their retirement. To achieve that they will need compulsory superannuation so they have the capacity to spend well above what the Age Pension provides for retirees.”

More information
A detailed report of the survey results is available here.

For further information and media inquiries, please contact:
Mia Kwok, 0451 949 300.

About ASFA

ASFA is the peak policy, research and advocacy body for Australia’s superannuation industry. It is a not-for-profit, sector-neutral, and non-party political, national organisation. ASFA’s mission is to continuously improve the superannuation system, so all Australians can enjoy a comfortable and dignified retirement.

Acknowledgement of Country

We want to respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of these lands, seas, and waters throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders both past and present. We acknowledge the history, the resilience and the continual contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of their Country.

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Daniel Mulino MP

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

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Born in Brindisi, Italy, Daniel was a young child when he moved with his family to Australia. He grew up in Canberra and completed his first degrees – arts and law – at the ANU. He then completed a Master of Economics (University of Sydney) and a PhD in economics from Yale.

He lectured at Monash University, was an economic adviser in the Gillard government and was a Victorian MP from 2014 to 2018. As Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer of Victoria, Daniel helped deliver major infrastructure projects and developed innovative financing structures for community projects.

In 2018 he was preselected for the new federal seat of Fraser and became its first MP at the 2019 election, re-elected in 2022 and 2025. From 2022 to 2025, Daniel was chair of the House of Representatives’ Standing Economics Committee in which he chaired inquiries; economic dynamism, competition and business formation and insurers’ responses to 2022 major floods claims.

In 2025, he became the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.

In August 2022, Daniel published ‘Safety Net: The Future of Welfare in Australia’, which aims to explore the ways in which an insurance approach can improve the effectiveness of government service delivery.