The Your Future Your Super were issued by the government as part of the 2020 Federal Budget.

The Senate has asked the Senate Economic Legislation Committee to examine proposed legislation that was introduced into Parliament on 17 February 2021.

There are three main provisions in the proposed legislation:

• Schedule 1: The 'stapling' measure, aimed at ensuring that employees who already have a superannuation fund are not unnecessarily made a member of a new fund as a result of changing jobs
• Schedule 2: The introduction of a new performance test to be undertaken by APRA in relation to MySuper products, and
• Schedule 3: A requirement for superannuation trustees to act in the best financial interests of their members in matters related to expenditure, decision-making and investment

In principle, CAANZ and CPA generally support Schedules 1 and 2, however the Bill as presently written contains fourteen sections which require regulations to make those provisions fully operational.

At present there has been no consultation in relation to exposure draft regulations, making it difficult for us to offer a definitive opinion on the operation of the proposed measures.

We do not believe that there is sufficient information contained in either the Bill or the Explanatory Memorandum to assist a reasonably informed reader to determine the intended operation of most of these.

The accounting bodies do not support Schedule 3, as this would introduce a lower standard than the current best interests duty obligation for trustees.

In addition, we have concerns in relation to the references in the Bill to requirements 'in writing' which perpetuates problems identified in current consultation undertaken by Treasury, Modernising Business Communications.

The submission raises a number of additional problems that the accounting bodies have identified in the proposed legislation.