Media Release

Super is super for the young and old – get ready for 1 July super tax changes – they could affect you

9 June 2017

Super is super for the young and old – get ready for 1 July super tax changes – they could affect you

Ask young people in Sydney what they think about superannuation savings for retirement and by far the majority think super is super. They get it.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) recently spoke to young people in Sydney streets as well as Martin Place and Pitt Street Mall and discovered great regard for super by every young person we spoke to.

You can see young people give their honest opinions at Super is super for the young.

ASFA CEO Dr Martin Fahy said it was refreshing to find universal regard for super on the street.

“It shows you’ve only got to step outside to find favourable reviews and it’s clearly worth celebrating 25 years of compulsory super in Australia,” he said.

“Young people on the street get it; they instinctively know putting aside compulsory savings for retirement makes sense. It’s been one of the greatest policy initiatives to support the populace and it’s a universal human good.”

Super isn’t just super for the young though.

Dr Fahy said he predicted the same question put to every working age cohort would reflect this view.

“Super is still the best bet for saving for a comfortable retirement,” he said. “It is tax advantaged and can provide sound and diversified investments.

“The Australian super system is now worth $2.3 trillion, its global ranking is superior, sought after and envied.

“Stability in the system is key, as is the need for people to make sure they know what super they have and are consolidating funds if needed, have the right insurance and are happy with their investment settings.”

Dr Fahy is encouraging Australians to make sure they are ready for the 1 July super tax changes and to talk to their super funds if they haven’t already.

He also recommended useful links at www.ato.gov.au and www.superguru.com.au.

“If you are affected by the legislated changes from last year’s budget, please prepare for the changes to ensure you make the most of your super, whether in the accumulation or retirement phase.

“Whatever your circumstances, get across your super settings and get invested in making sure you are sorting out your super to your best benefit. This applies to everyone, even if the new rules don’t affect them.

“While the majority of Australians won’t be affected by the new rules, any time is a good time to check your super and see if you can make changes to increase your wealth. I particularly encourage low income earners and women to make the most of the new and existing super rules to help build future income.”

Since 1992, superannuation in Australia has been a carefully calibrated universal compulsion garnering universal regard.

“Our system is now considered one of the top three retirement systems in the world,” Dr Fahy said.

For further information, please contact:

Teresa Mullan, Media Manager, 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 people can live in retirement with increasing prosperity.

Amy C. Edmondson

Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.

Edmondson has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #1 in 2021 and 2023; she also received that organization’s Breakthrough Idea Award in 2019, and Talent Award in 2017.  She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organisational learning, and her articles have been published in numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review and California Management Review. Her 2019 book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (Wiley), has been translated into 15 languages. Her prior books – Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy (Jossey-Bass, 2012), Teaming to Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Extreme Teaming (Emerald, 2017) – explore teamwork in dynamic organisational environments. In Building the future: Big teaming for audacious innovation (Berrett-Koehler, 2016), she examines the challenges and opportunities of teaming across industries to build smart cities. 

Edmondson’s latest book, Right Kind of Wrong (Atria), builds on her prior work on psychological safety and teaming to provide a framework for thinking about, discussing, and practicing the science of failing well. First published in the US and the UK in September, 2023, the book is due to be translated into 24 additional languages, and was selected for the Financial Times and Schroders Best Business Book of the Year award.

Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked on transformational change in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller’s mathematical contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organisational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design from Harvard University.

 

Daniel Mulino MP

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

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.