Super Alert – 7 November 2025: Payday Super reforms, ASIC proposed legislative instrument for financial calculators, Supreme Court decision re TPD benefits

Welcome to the weekly KHQ Super Alert. This week Parliament passed the Payday Super reforms. ASIC was active, launching a new breach reporting dashboard, proposing to remake a legislative instrument for generic financial calculators and publishing a financial reporting and audit surveillance report. Meanwhile, the Queensland Supreme Court handed down a decision relating to TPD benefits and pre-existing conditions.

ASIC – Roadmap for capital markets acknowledges significance of superannuation

On 5 November 2025, ASIC published Report 823 Advancing Australia’s evolving capital markets: Discussion paper response which sets out ASIC’s response to industry feedback about its proposed ‘roadmap to unlock opportunities and tackle emerging risks in Australia’s public and private markets’.

The ‘growing significance of superannuation funds’ is one of the issues highlighted and the following matters are noted:

• ‘[s]uperannuation growth has outpaced that of public equity markets, prompting a shift in investment strategies toward larger deal sizes, greater diversification and enhanced returns’;
• ‘[t]he scale and long-term horizon of superannuation capital make it better suited to the illiquidity and irregular cycles of private market investments, driving growth in private equity, infrastructure, and credit’; and
• ASIC ‘will continue to include superannuation trustees in [its] surveillance of market cleanliness, financial reporting and audits, and investment disclosures, including [its] work in the platforms segment’.

Click here for details.

Parliament – Payday Super reforms pass Parliament

On 4 November 2025, the following Bills relating to the Payday Super reforms passed both Houses of Parliament:

• Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025; and
• Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Bill 2025.

See our Super Alert of 10 October 2025 for further details about these Bills which will require employers from 1 July 2026 to make super contributions at the same time as they pay an employee’s salary and wages. In an associated media release, the Treasurer, the Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP, explained that the ‘ATO is consulting on its approach to compliance [with the new laws] for the 12 months after the change starts. The ATO’s approach will differentiate between low and high-risk employers’.

Click here, here and here for details.

ASIC – Proposal to remake legislative instrument for generic financial calculators

On 3 November 2025, ASIC requested industry feedback on its proposal to remake ASIC Corporations (Generic Calculators) Instrument 2016/207 which is due to expire on 1 April 2026. The instrument provides relief to providers of generic financial calculators from certain licensing requirements under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).

ASIC considers that the instrument operates ‘effectively and efficiently’ and proposes to remake the instrument largely in its current form, with some simplification and other minor amendments.

The consultation period closes on 1 December 2025.

Click here for details.

Queensland Supreme Court decision – enforceability of pre-existing conditions exclusion upheld

On 3 November 2025, the Supreme Court of Queensland delivered its judgment in Byrnes-Reeves v QSuper [2025] QSC 285. The plaintiff applied to the Court for a ruling that the trustee’s decision to deny his claim for a total and permanent disablement (TPD) benefit was invalid. The trustee had denied the plaintiff’s claim for TPD on the basis that his insurance policy was subject to a pre-existing conditions exclusion clause and the medical information it received indicated that the plaintiff’s signs or symptoms existed prior to the date that cover commenced.

The Court upheld the trustee’s decision and found that there was medical evidence which supported this. The Court also reconsidered afresh whether the plaintiff was entitled to a TPD benefit. The Court was not satisfied that the plaintiff was entitled to such a benefit under the terms of the policy. The claim was ultimately dismissed.

Click here for details.

ASIC – Findings from financial reporting and audit surveillance released

On 31 October 2025, ASIC released Report 819 ASIC’s oversight of financial reporting and audit 2024–25, which sets out the findings from its financial reporting and audit surveillance for the 12-month period ending 30 June 2025.

The report outlines:

• ‘findings from company financial reporting and audit surveillances’;
• ‘enforcement and compliance actions against registered company auditors’;
• ‘outcomes relating to company financial reports’; and
• ‘observations on auditor reporting and on voluntary sustainability reporting to assist preparers of mandatory sustainability reports’.

ASIC explained that it ‘reviewed 254 company financial reports, conducted 22 surveillances and reviewed 10 audit files at eight audit firms’ (this included the annual reports of some RSE licensees).

Click here for details.

ASIC – New breach reporting data dashboard launched

On 31 October 2025, ASIC launched its new dashboard which provides information about licensees’ self-reported breaches. According to ASIC, the dashboard is intended ‘to support improvements to customer outcomes, and uplift in the compliance and reporting practices of licensees across the financial services and credit space’.

The dashboard highlights trends across the following areas for various product types (including superannuation):

• ‘volume and nature of breaches’;
• ‘customer impact and loss’;
• ‘investigation and rectification of breaches’; and
• ‘customer compensation and remediation.’

The release of the database follows ASIC’s proposal to publish breach reporting data in April 2025 (discussed in our Super Alert of 11 April 2025).

Click here for details.

Legislation – ASIC levy instruments registered

On 31 October 2025, the following two legislative instruments were registered on the Federal Register of Legislation:

• ASIC (Supervisory Cost Recovery Levy—Regulatory Costs) Instrument 2025/689; and
• ASIC (Supervisory Cost Recovery Levy—Annual Determination) Instrument 2025/690.

According to the Explanatory Statements, these instruments outline ‘ASIC’s regulatory costs and their attribution to each industry sub-sector for the 2024-25 financial year’ and ‘certain matters about size and composition of ASIC’s regulated population and of the metrics that apply to each industry sub-sector within that regulated population for the 2024-25 financial year’.

The Cost Recovery Implementation Statement which sets out how ASIC intended to recover its regulatory costs from the industry was discussed in our Super Alert of 4 July 2025.

Click here and here for details.

Treasury – Consultation on changes to Australia’s financial reporting system

On 30 October 2025, Treasury opened a consultation on a draft version of the Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2025: Financial Reporting System Reform. According to the draft explanatory materials, the aim of the reform is to ‘create more flexible institutional arrangements for standard setting, not only to accommodate the development and ongoing maintenance of the new sustainability standards, but also to position the financial reporting system to respond to standard setting needs that may similarly arise in the future’.

The reforms propose to combine the following into a single body:

• Australian Accounting Standards Board;
• Auditing and Assurance Standards Board; and
• Financial Reporting Council.

The draft legislation establishes the structure, governance arrangements and functions of the body, to be known as External Reporting Australia.

The consultation period closes on 27 November 2025.

Click here for details.

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