Several revisions from the Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Measures No.4) Bill 2018 took effect from 1 April 2019. These measures are designed to help reduce the super guarantee (SG) gap, protect employees’ super entitlements and strengthen the ATO’s ability to recover unpaid super.
Changes to disclosure laws will now allow the ATO to disclose information to employees about an employers’ failure to meet SG obligations. This will also allow for the ATO to reveal their processes involved in retrieving these amounts.
Additionally, a free voluntary online education course is now available to help employers understand and meet SG obligations. Education directions permit the ATO to instruct employers who don’t meet their SG obligations to complete the online education course, which includes an assessment element.
Individuals are encouraged to notify the ATO of non-complying employers. If your employer is approachable, you could make them aware of the online course and its benefits prior to the ATO contacting them and directing them to complete it.
Whether you are a newcomer to the workforce or have been working full time for 30 years, you must have come across the concept of superannuation. Chances are, you’ve already been steadily building your retirement funds in one of the 500 Australian superannuation funds but are still unfamiliar with how exactly your super is being managed and where your super fund is investing your money in.
With the beginning of a new decade and social issues on the rise, it is time to take a more conscious stance on what you are doing with your super and what causes you are supporting through the employment of your money through your super fund.
A recent investigation into Australian super funds by the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), released in February 2020, found that 50 of the largest super funds in Australia are proxy voting against local climate-change initiatives. These organisations are instead approaching climate change from a global perspective, whilst ignoring more pressing domestic challenges to reduce carbon emissions..
The lack of support from Australian super funds for localised climate action is growing problematic, as Australia fails to address its appalling record on carbon emissions and is falling behind new-age global goals to fight against environmental degradation and climate change.
In contrast, some of Australia’s most environmentally and socially conscious super funds lack the reputation to attract long-term users. To look for more environmentally friendly Australian super funds, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) grades supers based on their ethical contributions and makes this information available to the public.
Instead of mindlessly joining Australian super funds that are neglecting growingly problematic domestic climate change issues, Australians need to become more conscious of our indirect actions and super investments. Rather than investing in an unethical super fund, looking into self-managed super funds may be another good option. We need to learn to take matters into our own hands and become more socially conscious of where exactly our money goes.
