Welcome to the weekly KHQ Super Alert. This week, Treasury published the Government’s response to the independent review of the ‘Meetings and Documents Amendments’ to the Corporations Act and also launched a post-implementation review in relation to the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort.
Parliament – Proposed Bill to increase SG for firefighters and paramedics
On 5 February 2025, the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Amendment (Frontline Emergency Service Workers) Bill 2025 (Cth) was introduced to the Senate as a private members’ Bill. According to the Explanatory Memorandum, the Bill proposes to increase ‘the superannuation guarantee rate for firefighters and paramedics by 4.4 per cent to match the base rate of superannuation contributions provided to Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel’ (ie, the SG rate would be 16.4% on and from 1 July 2025).
The Bill would not have application in every State and Territory. For example in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, firefighters and paramedics are generally covered by defined benefit schemes by virtue of State legislation, and the relevant contribution rate is already higher than 16.4%.
Click here for details.
Treasury – Government response to statutory review of the meetings and documents amendments
On 4 February 2025, Treasury released the Government’s response to the recently finalised review of the ‘Statutory Review of the Meetings and Documents Amendments’. As referred to in our Super Alert of 13 September 2024, the final report from the independent panel was released in September last year after it had finalised its consideration of the effects of Schedule 1 of the Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Act 2021 and Corporations Amendment (Meetings and Documents) Act 2022. The panel made 11 recommendations as part of its final report.
In an associated media release, the Hon Stephen Jones MP, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, confirmed that ‘[t]he Government has accepted or accepted in principle all recommendations of the independent panel’, including the following recommendations:
- ‘to maintain the current requirement for listed companies and registered schemes to obtain constitutional permission from their members before they can hold a wholly virtual meeting’; and
- ‘to conduct another review in 5 years’ time of the effectiveness of the virtual meeting laws’.
Mr Jones also clarified that ‘[t]he Government encourages [ASIC, the ASX and industry associations] to provide guidance [on appropriate conduct and use of technology at members’ meetings] well before the commencement of the further review in 5 years’.
Click here and here for details.
Treasury – Review of the CSLR
On 31 January 2025, Treasury launched a consultation on the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR). The terms of reference explain that the CSLR was ‘introduced to provide victims of financial services misconduct with access to redress and compensation within the scope of the scheme, after all other avenues have been exhausted’. Accordingly, Treasury will now ‘undertake a post-implementation review…of the scheme to ensure the scheme is delivering its intended objectives’.
In an associated media release, the Hon Stephen Jones MP, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, explained that ‘[n]ew data…shows that industry will have to provide $78 million to compensate victims in 2025–26’ and therefore ‘[e]nsuring the scheme is sustainably funded will be an important focus of the review’.
The consultation period will end on 28 February 2025.
Click here and here for details.
Federal Court – Dismissal of judicial review application relating to RSE licence conditions
On 31 January 2025, the Federal Court delivered its judgment in BUSS (Queensland) Pty Ltd atf The Building Unions Superannuation Scheme (Queensland) v Australian Prudential Regulation Authority [2025] FCA 31. The case concerned an application by a superannuation trustee for judicial review of APRA’s decision to impose additional conditions on an RSE licence. The Federal Court ultimately dismissed the application but noted that there may be other review avenues available to the trustee instead.
In an associated media release, APRA explained that ‘[it] intends to progress the work contemplated by the additional licence conditions as quickly as possible’.
Click here and here for details.
APRA – Updates to APRA Connect taxonomy artefacts
On 31 January 2025, APRA announced that it had ‘updated the APRA Connect Taxonomy Artefacts webpage with additional draft superannuation artefacts’. The artefacts ‘are provided to help entities prepare data for submission on APRA Connect’ and now include ‘[d]raft reporting taxonomy artefacts’ for superannuation which ‘are intended to enable early familiarisation in the APRA Connect test environment’. APRA clarified that ‘[it] does not intend to update the draft data collections before go live, beyond correcting errors identified during familiarisation’.
Click here for details.
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