Labor reveals super increase position amid 'predatory' practices crackdown

Labor will not increase how much superannuation employers must pay workers, instead focusing on reforms to stamp out "predatory" practices used to lure people to put retirement savings into risky investments.

The superannuation guarantee rate — the minimum percentage of a worker's earnings that employers must pay into a retirement fund — is 12 per cent, and there have been calls within Labor to raise the rate to 15 per cent.

While rebuffing the need to increase the guarantee rate, the government is doubling down on its defence of the superannuation system amid calls from One Nation to allow workers to withdraw funds before retirement to help pay off mortgages.

"There's no plans to lift the super guarantee," Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, who will unveil the long-awaited consumer protection reforms later on Wednesday, told ABC's Radio National.

He said raising the rate to 12 per cent was something Labor had long pushed for and that was now "putting people in a very strong position" for retirement.

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Mulino will detail the long-awaited crackdown on predatory practices in an address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, after the high-profile collapses of First Guardian and Shield Master Funds in 2024 and 2025 stripped an estimated 12,000 Australians of their retirement savings.

One Nation has pushed to loosen rules around early access, while the government ruled out any rise to the compulsory super guarantee on Wednesday morning.

The reforms target "lead generators" — operators who use social media, online ads and cold calls to funnel people's retirement into high-risk schemes.

Unlicensed real-time communication about superannuation will be banned, and licensees will be required to take reasonable steps to ensure lead generation activities comply with legal requirements.

The anti‑hawking regime will also be bolstered, with stronger consent requirements, a narrower exemption for financial advisers to existing clients, and harsher penalties for breaches.

Mulino said the reforms were designed to strengthen consumer protections and disrupt "predatory and inappropriate behaviour" that led to the collapse of the Shield and First Guardian funds.

"Lead generators reaching out to these people in unsolicited ways, undertaking highly manipulative interactions to convince them that their super products were not performing well or were inappropriate, and then manipulating them into inappropriate products for them," Mulino told ABC radio on Wednesday morning.

The government previously floated the measures in a consultation paper published in April.