I’ve just returned from the SMSF Association National Conference 2026 held in Adelaide this year. Upon reflection of the event, two things struck me. The first is that we are going through an unprecedented (and I’m always reluctant to use that word) period of change in the superannuation industry. The other is the contemptuous attitude the Albanese government is unabashedly displaying toward the SMSF sector.
In the first instance, you may ask why I think we are going through an historic time in the industry. In my 18 years of covering the sector I have never seen the magnitude of change it is currently undergoing.
One of these shifts is a subject everyone is more than familiar with and that is the Division 296 tax. This measure has dominated discussion since it was first announced on 28 February 2023. Since then we’ve had a revision in October last year and the amended legislation was introduced to parliament last month.
While we’ve been talking about it for the past three years, we still don’t know what its final form will look like and the vagaries it will throw up, and the strategies it will prompt to mitigate its effects.
Another massive change is the introduction of Payday Super. This regime dictates superannuation guarantee contributions be made pretty much at the same time salaries and wages are paid. While there is more for employers to worry about on this score, there are still some housekeeping issues SMSF trustees will have to tend to in order to facilitate this new framework. Some industry experts have labelled the introduction of this measure as the biggest change in superannuation in decades.
And while SMSF trustees will not necessarily be exposed directly to the new system, there is no doubt they will be subject to the complaints about it as I predict chaos will reign upon its introduction on 1 July 2026.
There are many other modifications to the service of the superannuation and financial services industries I have not touched upon, but the two I have mentioned are significant enough.
And that’s a perfect segue to my second point. You’d think in an environment like this the government would think it of paramount importance to address SMSF stakeholders directly to provide more information about these initiatives. But incredibly there were no politicians at the conference.
Their absence was even more conspicuous as no one even bothered to send a pre-recorded video message. This is a particularly poor effort seeing Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino has never addressed the sector before.
I understand he may have been reticent to answer questions about a new tax that is grossly unpopular in the SMSF sector, but he didn’t necessarily have to provide this opportunity. All he had to do was make a presentation.
And again if he wanted to shy away from any Division 296 tax discussion, he could have focused on Payday Super – a move of which the government is very proud. Incidentally, he has done this before. Not showing up just reinforces the thought nobody in Canberra could give two hoots about the impact some of the government’s policies are about to have on SMSFs.
It was a bad look and I will be interested to see if the Albanese government continues this modus operandi at the remaining industry events I will be attending this year.