SuperGuide news for July 2026

Budget brings borrowing ban, CGT shake-up and a new trust tax

The government passed legislation banning self-managed super funds (SMSFs) from entering new limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) to acquire residential property, after reaching a deal with the Greens to secure budget passage. The legislation received Royal Assent on 26 June.

The ban applies to new arrangements only. Existing LRBAs are unaffected, and SMSFs retain the ability to borrow to purchase commercial property under the existing rules.

SMSF Association chief executive Peter Burgess said the focus of reform should be on those who exploit consumers, not the structure they use. He pushed back against suggestions raised during the Senate inquiry that SMSFs should face additional restrictions because complying super funds were carved out of the CGT and negative gearing changes. “Treating SMSFs as the problem mischaracterises the issue and risks directing reform away from the conduct that causes the harm,” Burgess said. “The focus should be on those who exploit consumers through aggressive marketing, lead generation schemes and poor advice practices.”

The legislation came with a broader package of tax reforms. From 1 July 2027, the 50% capital gains tax (CGT) discount for assets held personally or in trusts will be replaced with an inflation-linked discount, alongside a new minimum 30% tax on capital gains. These changes do not apply to super. The concessional CGT rates in super remain unchanged: 10% in accumulation phase and 0% in retirement phase. Investors in new housing will be able to choose between the existing 50% discount and the new regime when they sell.

A separate minimum 30% tax on income distributed from discretionary trusts takes effect from 1 July 2028. Complying super funds are excluded.

Labor blocks, then backs, teenage super push

Labor and the Coalition voted together in the Senate on 1 July to reject a Greens attempt to extend super to all workers under 18, regardless of hours worked.

Under current rules, employers are not required to pay the superannuation guarantee (SG) to workers under 18 unless they work more than 30 hours in a given week. The Greens introduced a partial disallowance to the relevant regulations, arguing the exemption leaves 515,000 young workers without super and costs them an estimated $405 million in contributions in 2025–26 alone.

Greens finance spokesperson Senator Barbara Pocock said 93% of under-18s work fewer than 30 hours per week because of school and study commitments, meaning they miss out regardless of how much they earn. “Labor is picking the pockets of teenagers to put it in the profits of Coles and Woolies,” Senator Pocock said.

In a swift reversal, on 23 July Labor announced it would include a policy in its National Platform to extend compulsory super contributions to all under-18 workers, regardless of how many hours they work. The policy shift is not yet law, but the formal platform commitment clears the way for legislation.

Super fund call centres fail customer service test

A new mystery shopping study has found major super fund call centres are falling short on basic customer service, adding weight to calls for mandatory service standards across the industry.

Super Consumers Australia (SCA) partnered with Customer Service Benchmarking Australia (CSBA) to assess 20 major super fund call centres through 1,000 mystery shopper calls. The average customer experience score was just 49.9%, no fund scored above 55% and none reached SCA’s 80% “green zone”.

AustralianSuper, the country’s largest fund, answered just 10% of calls and was excluded from the overall rankings, along with Team Super, which answered 52%. Across all funds tested, 87% of calls connected.

The study found 23% of prospective customers were told to “go online” as the only solution, and in 58% of calls made on behalf of someone with limited English, funds redirected responsibility back to the caller rather than helping directly. 70% of calls from customers experiencing vulnerability, such as those seeking urgent access to super after a distressing event, scored 5 out of 10 or lower for empathy.

SCA chief executive officer Xavier O’Halloran said a healthy super balance wasn’t enough on its own. “People… need to know their fund will pick up the phone when they’re grieving, need to access their money or ask a simple question, and actually help them,” he said.

SCA is calling for mandatory customer service standards, backed by public reporting, independent benchmarking and better staff training. Members can check their own fund’s result using SCA’s call centre scorecard tool.

ASIC warns investors and super members

Australia’s corporate regulator has issued a series of warnings targeting investment scammers, lead generators and imposter websites, urging Australians to be vigilant about how their money is managed and marketed to them.

1. Pump and dump schemes

ASIC is warning Australians to be extremely cautious of investment tips received through social media and messaging apps, amid a spike in reports of pump and dump scams using fake celebrity endorsements. Scammers are using the identities and images of well-known finance industry figures, such as economists and market commentators, to lure consumers into WhatsApp and other messaging groups, where they are encouraged to buy shares. Once enough investors have bought in and the price is artificially inflated, scammers sell their own holdings, causing the price to collapse.

ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland said older Australians appear to be a primary target. “We suspect scammers are deliberately targeting Australians nearing retirement because they know many people in this age group have accumulated retirement savings and are looking for investment opportunities,” Mr Kirkland said. “Scams are becoming more sophisticated and harder to spot, including the use of AI-generated deep-fake videos of well-known personalities.” If you receive stock tips through WhatsApp, Telegram or another messaging service after seeing a social media post, ASIC says you should assume it is a scam. Australians lost $837.7 million to investment scams in 2025.

2. Lead generation

ASIC has expanded its public list of entities involved in lead generation to 63, adding to an initial list published in February. Lead generators typically cold-call super fund members or use social media clickbait to pressure them into switching funds, often unnecessarily. The full list is at Moneysmart. Members receiving unsolicited calls about their super should hang up.

Consumer Action Law Centre has called for stronger action, releasing a report arguing that lead generation in high-risk sectors should be banned outright. The report, ‘Manufactured Consent: Stopping the Harm from Manipulative Lead Generation’, found the practice “sorts and steers consumers through systems designed to manipulate them towards decisions they may not otherwise have made,” pointing to the collapse of the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund as a prime example of the harm. It calls on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and legislators to ban lead generation in high-risk sectors, expand unfair trading practices laws to explicitly cover it, and tighten consent requirements on digital platforms.

3. Imposter websites

ASIC has also launched an initiative to combat imposter scams by collecting and publishing the official website addresses of Australian financial services (AFS) licensees on its Professional Registers Search. Criminals increasingly copy the names, logos and websites of legitimate super funds and investment platforms to run scams. More than 6,500 licensees have been invited to participate. Consumers can use the register to check whether a super fund or financial services website is genuine before engaging with it.

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