federal budget 2024-25

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With inflation and currently high interest rates continuing to hit household budgets, this year’s Federal Budget contained some important changes for super. It also provided welcome measures aimed at addressing cost-of-living challenges and encouraging investment in Australia’s energy transition.

 

We were pleased to see funding committed to pay super on the Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave scheme as this is a great investment in improving women’s retirement outcomes. However, there’s still work to do to improve equity in super through fairer targeting of super tax concessions to help boost the retirement savings of women and lower-income earners.

This Budget contained impactful measures for people still working as well as retirees. Read on for a snapshot of the changes, including:

  • funding for super on the Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave scheme
  • relief for those accessing the Age Pension
  • measures to address cost-of-living challenges.


Note, these Budget measures are proposals only, and are subject to passage of legislation.

 

the full budget breakdown

 

For super members/retirees

Following over a decade of advocacy by HESTA and others, we were pleased to see funding committed in the Federal Budget to pay super on the Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave scheme for parents of babies born or adopted on or after 1 July 2025.

Payments will be made annually to individuals’ super funds from 1 July 2026. This important equity measure will reduce the impact of career breaks to care for young children on super balances and support parents, particularly women, to achieve a more dignified retirement.

Start date: 1 July 2025

 

In good news for those members accessing the Age Pension, the government announced a further 12-month extension to 30 June 2025 of the current freeze in deeming rates. This will assist part pensioners receiving income from bank deposits, investments and members with a retirement income stream, which are considered under the deeming rules governing eligibility for the Age Pension.

Freezing deeming rates allows retirees to benefit from increases in interest rates and returns without reducing their Age Pension. 

The deeming rate has been frozen for the last two years with the top rate unchanged at 2.25%.

Extended to: 30 June 2025

 

 

Measures to address cost-of-living challenges

For members that are still working, the flagship cost-of-living support measure announced in the Budget is the already legislated stage three tax cuts. This will see all Australian taxpayers (earning over the tax-free threshold of $18,200) get a tax cut. This can help ease cost-of-living pressures on household budgets.

 

The government will provide $3.5 billion in energy relief. From 1 July 2024, all Australian households will receive a total rebate of $300 and eligible small businesses will receive a $325 rebate on their electricity bills throughout the year.  

 

A 10% increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance was also announced, potentially benefitting an estimated 1 million households that rent. 

 

With housing affordability and availability of social housing continuing to be an important issue, the government has announced additional measures to support building homes for more Australians.

$6.2 billion of funding for new initiatives over five years will be contributed into housing programs — aimed at easing the rental crisis. Importantly, other measures in the government’s broader $32 billion housing plan include $1 billion for crisis and transition accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and concessional financing of up to $1.9 billion for community housing providers and other charities to support 40,000 new social and affordable homes. In addition, there’s a doubling of Commonwealth homelessness funding to $400 million every year.

 

 

Measures affecting members working in health and community services

We were pleased to see the government commit to a range of measures designed to contribute to recruitment and retention of the health and community services workforce. These included funding provisions for the aged care and early childhood education wage increases, more flexibility for carers, and approximately $320-a-week ‘prac payment’ for eligible nursing, teaching, midwifery and social work students.

So many of our 1 million HESTA members spend their working lives providing vital care for communities. However, these critical roles are typically lower paid. So, we welcome more support that can help our members achieve greater financial security in retirement.

 

 

 

For employers

Payday super, announced in last year’s Budget, will shift super guarantee (SG) payment cycles from a minimum of quarterly to align with pay cycles by 1 July 2026.

This year’s Budget included an allocation of $60 million from the workplace relations portfolio to support productivity initiatives and implement policy changes including the introduction of payday super. However, no further information was provided regarding implementation of this reform that will help members more easily track their super contributions and ensure that their retirement savings can be invested and begin growing sooner.

We expect further details will be finalised in coming months to support a 1 July 2026 start date and will communicate these updates to you to help you prepare.

 

The Budget also contained measures to help pursue unpaid superannuation entitlements owed by employers in liquidation or bankruptcy. It expects to return $44.4 million to member accounts from 1 July 2024.

 

$10 million will be spent over two years from 2024–25 to provide additional support for small business employers in administering Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave pay.

 

 

budget measures that facilitate investment in the energy transition

 

The Federal Budget contained measures to support Australia’s energy transition — committing $22.7 billion over the next decade with a focus on new industries including renewable hydrogen, critical minerals processing, green metals, low-carbon liquid fuels and clean energy manufacturing.

This transition will be supported by $17.3 million over four years from 2024-25 to promote and develop Australia’s sustainable finance market through strengthening safeguards against greenwashing and other sustainability-related financial misconduct, as well as delivery of the sustainable finance framework and consultation work on product labelling.

At HESTA, we believe we need to accelerate the transition to clean energy and away from fossil fuels. This can help mitigate climate change-related risks to our members’ retirement savings, and create new investment opportunities.

We welcomed Budget funding to jump-start large decarbonisation projects — in line with our already existing commitment to invest 10% of our portfolio in climate solutions by 2030, and to reach net zero carbon emissions across our investment portfolio by 2050.

 

reminder of other key changes to super starting 1 July 2024

 

  • The superannuation guarantee (SG) contributions that your employer is required to make into your super account will rise from the current rate of 11% to 11.5%.

  • The concessional contributions limit, which is the maximum amount you can contribute to your super before-tax, will increase from $27,500 to $30,000 per year. The non-concessional contributions limit will rise to $120,000 per year.

  • The maximum government super co-contribution entitlement remains at $500, however the lower-income threshold increases to $45,400 p.a. and the higher-income threshold increases to $60,400 p.a.

 


You can find more details on all the Federal Budget announcements at budget.gov.au.

 

 

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