Rest members endorse moves to make super fairer

Rest, one of Australia’s largest profit-to-member superannuation funds, is calling for the Australian Government to take further steps towards a fairer super system in this year’s Federal Budget, after the fund’s members backed its recommended policy reforms.

A survey of Rest members conducted by Redbridge Group¹ shows overwhelming support for a number of reforms recommended in the fund’s 2025-26 Pre-Budget Submission, published in January this year.

• Super for all under-18 workers: 71% support making super payable to all workers under the age of 18, regardless of how many hours they work. Only 5% oppose this.
• Commence a review into Superannuation Carers’ Credits: 71% support a system to apply credits to the super of parents and carers for time away from work. Only 3% oppose this.
• Update the Low Income Super Tax Offset (LISTO): 77% support raising the LISTO so it’s fairer for low income workers. Only 1% oppose this.
• Protect the super of family violence victims: 80% support changing the law so family violence perpetrators are not able to inherit their victim’s superannuation benefits. Only 1% oppose this.

Rest Chief Strategy & Corporate Affairs Officer Tyrone O’Neill says this research suggests the public would welcome changes to make the super system work more fairly for all Australians, particularly young workers, women and part-time and casual workers.

“Rest represents over 2 million Australians, including around 1.2 million women and 1 million workers under the age of 30. This is equivalent to 1-in-7 working Australians – a sizeable segment of the labour force - expressing support for fairer and more equitable super,” says Mr O’Neill.

“We’ve made 10 policy recommendations to the Government that we believe will support fairer and more equitable retirement outcomes for our members and have a positive impact on the world they will retire into.

“Our priority recommendation is to extend the Superannuation Guarantee to all under-18 workers, including those working less than 30 hours per week, with an appropriate transition period for businesses.

“The current rules are unfair and disadvantaging young Australian workers. We urge the Government to commit to this change in the Budget and include a thorough consultation process and multi-year staged approach to implementation.”

Rest is also calling for urgent progress on reforms to financial advice and retirement, as well as a review into the introduction of ‘Superannuation Carer Credits’ for periods of unpaid caring work.

Other recommendations include:

• updating the Low Income Super Tax Offset (LISTO) policy settings to give a fairer deal to low-income earners
• funding and developing a framework for data sharing between government agencies and super funds to uplift data integrity, and support efficiencies across the system
• reforming the law so family violence perpetrators are not able to inherit their victim’s superannuation benefits
• co-designing with First Nations peoples the development of a holistic ‘First Nations Retirement Strategy’
• establishing an ambitious, Paris-aligned and scientifically backed 2035 Australian Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in order to ensure a swift and orderly transition to a Net Zero economy, and prioritise the release of the Net Zero Plan and robust sectoral decarbonisation plans in order to give investors the certainty needed to allocate capital to the transition
• accelerating current work with State and Territory Governments to prioritise policy changes to encourage institutional investment in housing supply, and
• outlining a more detailed roadmap and provide appropriate resourcing for the next phase of the sustainable finance agenda, including a focus on decent work and social and economic inequality.

¹ Research conducted by Redbridge Group, on behalf of Rest, via an online survey of 1,007 Rest members aged 18 and above between 23 January and 6 February 2025. The data is weighted based on gender and age weights to reflect Rest’s membership profile.