Super Alert – 10 April 2026: Treasury consultations, member protections in super switching, CSLR future funding
Welcome to the weekly KHQ Super Alert. It was a quiet news week this week following the Easter break. All three news items relate to Treasury consultations linked to improving member protections in superannuation switching, increasing the regulation and oversight of lead generators, and ensuring the CSLR is well-funded for all future claims.
Treasury – Consultation paper for greater member protections in superannuation switching
On 7 April 2026, Treasury released a consultation paper titled ‘Enhancing member protections in the superannuation system’. Treasury is seeking feedback in relation to various proposals to address recent concerns raised by ASIC in relation to platform trustees, click-bait marketing by lead generators, superannuation portability arrangements and remediation pathways where these events cause loss to members.
Various proposals have been put forward under the following headings:
- ‘Strengthening governance requirements for Platform Trustees’ – this may involve mandatory holding limits for certain investment options, due diligence requirements or restricting certain trustee operating models;
- ‘Increase penalties under the SIS Act’;
- ‘Introduce waiting period for inter-fund superannuation switches’;
- ‘Limit fee deductions for switching-related financial advice’; and
- ‘Requiring Platform Trustees to compensate members for eligible losses’.
The consultation period closes on 22 May 2026.
Click here for details.
Treasury – Options paper for future funding of CSLR
On 7 April 2026, Treasury released an options paper titled ‘Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR): Reform options to support ongoing sustainability’. According to Treasury, claims made to the CSLR are ‘exceeding early expectations and placing material pressure on the scheme’s funding settings…[because] large-scale failures…have driven costs beyond what was initially anticipated, requiring extraordinary funding measures, including a one-off levy on the ten-largest financial institutions to fund legacy claims’.
As a result, Treasury is seeking feedback in relation to the following proposals (amongst others):
- ‘Enabling CSLR to deduct payments from compensation’;
- ‘Expanding CSLR subrogation rights’;
- ‘Revising the treatment of counterfactual loss for CSLR-eligible financial advice complaints’;
- ‘Embedding greater certainty within the special levy framework’; and
- ‘Improving recovery of unpaid AFCA determinations within corporate groups’.
The consultation period closes on 22 May 2026.
Click here for details.
Treasury – Consultation paper for greater regulation and oversight of lead generators
On 7 April 2026, Treasury released a consultation paper titled ‘Curbing lead generation activity’. Treasury is seeking feedback in relation to ‘the regulation and oversight of lead generation in relation to financial products and services’. These are marketing activities ‘designed to create consumer interest in a product or service, with the goal of persuading consumers to purchase the product or service’. While laws are already in place to prohibit unsolicited contact with consumers, the Government is considering ‘whether the current laws are fit-for-purpose and effective in enabling enforcement to reduce consumer harm’.
Various reforms are proposed in the consultation paper across the following areas of focus:
- ‘enhancing accountability for the conduct of lead generators’;
- ‘strengthening the hawking prohibition to capture inappropriate lead generation activities’;
- ‘targeting remuneration structures which incentivise poor conduct’; and
- ‘targeting superannuation advertisements for earlier intervention’.
The consultation period closes on 22 May 2026.
Click here for details.
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