The Treasury Laws Amendment (Your Future, Your Super) Bill 2021 awaits Royal Assent after being passed by both Houses on 17 June 2021 with 8 Government amendments in the Senate (to which the House of Reps agreed).
The Bill implements the Government’s Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) reforms from the 2020-21 Budget, including “stapled” single default accounts, a best “financial” interests duty for trustees and APRA benchmark testing of investment performance.
The Government’s Senate amendments to the Bill (agreed to by the Reps) delay the application of the single default account amendments so that it applies to employees commencing employment on or after 1 November 2021 (instead of 1 July 2021). Delaying the application date to 1 November 2021 seeks to align the single default account amendments with the notice of the outcomes of the first annual APRA performance test for MySuper products.
The Senate amendments also make a technical correction to clarify that a requirement that must be met to pass an APRA underperformance test can relate to a specific Part 6A product as prescribed by the regulations. The Senate also made amendments to remove the regulation making powers to prescribe additional requirements where failure to comply with the additional requirements would be a contravention of the proposed best financial interests duty for trustees.