National Press Club Address by AustralianSuper Chief Executive Paul Schroder

Australian-rules retirement

3 September 2025

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands around Canberra – the Ngunnawal people – and pay my respects to their Elders, past and present. I extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the country.

It’s important to reflect that for First Nations Australians, superannuation is not yet truly ‘super’. All Australians deserve to live well in retirement, too often that is not true for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people where lower life expectancy, less time in well paid work and the challenges of language and record keeping can all have a material, detrimental impact.

Thank you for that kind introduction, and to the National Press Club for inviting me to speak today.

I’d like to welcome some of the fantastic Australian businesses we support, who are in the room with us today.

We are delighted to have our independent chair Dr Don Russell and Board Directors Michele O’Neil and Innes Willox here today. Unions and employers, represented in equal numbers on our Board, have been careful stewards of the Fund for 40 years, and that partnership is at the heart of success for members.

I’d especially like to acknowledge all AustralianSuper members here or watching.

At its heart, superannuation is two things: people and numbers. Two of the things I love the most.

And there are two numbers that stand out for me: 1,000 ... and 580.

1,000 people on average join AustralianSuper every day. That’s about one new member every minute.

Over half – the 580 – will be Generation Z.

So, a member who joined today could well be a member of this Fund next century.

Among them is 17-year-old Claudia, who’s learning the ropes at her local bakery. I spoke with her last week and she told me that she’s “never really thought about her retirement.”

Then there’s Bachir, a security guard I met at an office building in Sydney, who said to me as I approached the desk that I would be proud of him because he has been a member for 25 years.

He’s a little closer to retirement than Claudia.

Bachir is one of 11 members in the fund named Bachir and he’s likely part of a wave of two-and-a-half-million Australians who will retire between now and 2035…

That is more than the combined populations of Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin retiring together in just one decade. Imagine that.

It is more than a wave, it is a tsunami of working Australians about to retire,

…some planning, some preparing, and so many not sure what to do…

This is what I’m thinking about – how can we deliver for them, so they all live well in retirement? Whether that is in a couple of decades like Bachir ... or at the turn of the next century, like Claudia.

There are huge demographic, economic and social forces coming to bear on our nation, and the super sector must reset to be ready to meet them.

With that in mind, I want to do three things today.

First, I’ll discuss the past, present, and future of super. How a radical vision became one of the best parts of Australia’s financial system, with global stature, but our work is only half done.

Second, I’ll outline essential reforms that would make retirement simpler, more seamless, and fit for the modern economy and the modern retiree.

Third, I’ll share what it will take to find the sweet spot for super in national renewal.

Let’s start with super’s place in Australia.

Australian superannuation is unique.

It’s an Australian invention, like Australian rules football.

We didn’t invent retirement, of course, but no one else plays football or does retirement like we do.

Most other countries have treated retirement as a liability to be minimised.

We treat retirement as an asset to be maximised, and it’s working.

It was a radical idea – started by unions, which has become a joint social project. Where a visionary Federal Government legislated a system that has allowed Australians, their employers, unions, governments, funds and regulators to work together to create a source of wealth and prosperity.

I said I love numbers, here's a few more:

• Australians have $4 trillion in the superannuation system.
• We are the 55th largest population in the world, but the 4th largest for retirement savings.
• And soon – we'll be the 2nd largest in the world.

Those are big numbers, and they really mean something.

Super’s scale enables us to create wealth and prosperity for working Australians and underpin the Australian economy.

The scale of super allows us to invest in productive businesses and infrastructure and diversify the economy.

By 2030, we forecast AustralianSuper’s investments in Australia could exceed $250 billion – which is roughly equivalent to 9% of the forecast Australian GDP.

The scale of super means Australia now has a pool of unleveraged capital larger than the entire banking sector.

Super’s scale means we have a natural stabiliser in volatile times that can and has helped steady the financial system, as a counter cyclical investor in market down turns.

For example, during COVID, we poured liquidity into businesses where it was needed and stepped in to cushion market shocks where we could. We did this to create opportunities for members, and the net result was more stable and effective markets.

Super’s scale has also helped make the government Age Pension system sustainable for the long term.

Australia now spends around 2.3 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product on age pensions – compared to around 9 per cent or more for many other developed countries.

Those countries are steadily increasing their pension spending as their populations age, but Australia is doing the opposite.

The Intergenerational Report highlights that as we age as a nation, more Australians will have more money in retirement, and the call on the Federal Budget will continue to fall. What’s not to like about that?

This is what the scale of super enables. More money and choice for individuals, more productive capital for business. More resilience in a crisis and less demands on government coffers. It truly is an economic and social policy success in global terms.

The hard work of Australians – and the super sector’s investment skills – mean the national nest egg is expected to double to $8 trillion by 2035.

And that growth and scale opens the door to greater prosperity for more Australians.

We now have more people with more savings approaching retirement than at any other time in our history.

Once Australians only had their wages. Now many also have a significant financial asset in their superannuation.

The Super Guarantee has also made Australia fairer. Over the last 20 years, it’s tripled super coverage amongst lower-income retirees and delivered super income growth five times faster for middle earners than for the wealthiest.

This transformation hasn’t gone unnoticed.

The rest of the world has taken notice for important reasons.

Firstly, Australian-rules retirement has assumed global scale.

We now have a dozen globally significant funds in this country.

AustralianSuper is the largest – just last month, we hit $400 billion in members’ retirement savings.

We’re in the top 20 pension funds in the world and we expect to break into the top 10 by 2035, when we’re forecast to be managing $1 trillion for five million members.

So, it’s understandable that Australian super funds are also going overseas and judiciously buying ports, airports, roads, energy infrastructure, data centres, shares, bonds and property – shipping returns from these investments back home for members.

Global investing for domestic beneficiaries.

Australia is now one of the few countries in the world that exports equity capital – meaning we invest more overseas than we borrow.

That’s a key reason why Australia’s net foreign liabilities – the balance sheet measuring how much we owe overseas against how much we own – more than halved between 2016 and 2025.

We are helping fund a better future for the nation. And this trend is expected to continue.

Our economy was built off the sheep’s back, and expanded by the ore we dug out of the ground. Capital exports could drive our future prosperity.

The super system is the envy of the world – policy makers and financiers across the world are talking to us about what they can learn from our system.

We should all step into that and take pride in the efforts that have gotten us here.

The world sees those impressive numbers, but they’re not the numbers that matter most to me.

You see, AustralianSuper is not the Board, or the Chief Executive, or any of our global offices, it’s the three-and-a-half-million members who trust us with their retirement futures.

It’s why, as an organisation, we talk of ‘members’ assets’, not ‘funds under management’.

The assets are Claudia’s and Bachir’s – and we work hard to earn and maintain their trust every day for the 75 years they could be in the Fund.

We participate in domestic and global markets on their behalf.

Claudia and Bachir, through their super, can invest in some of the world’s best companies and assets, and earn more money, risk adjusted, than they ever could on their own.

If a super fund member had $25,000 in a diversified investment option earning an assumed net return of 7.5% per annum, not including any fees and costs deducted from their super account, over 25 years it would have grown to about $150,000.

That’s 25,000 to 150,000, over 25 years for an individual.

Since 2000, AustralianSuper has generated $185 billion in collective investment earnings for members. $185 billion earned for members.

When the Super Guarantee finally reached 12% on the first of July, the sector reached a long-awaited milestone – the compulsory contribution target set by Paul Keating.

This means that Claudia – in a few years when she finishes school and follows her dream of becoming a vet – can work full time at 25 and based on standard assumptions, potentially achieve a super balance of around $900,000 when she retires at 67 years old.

This nest egg would give her an annual retirement income of $58,000 (in today’s dollars) over 25 years when combined with current Age Pension entitlements - or 77% of her after-tax salary.

That’s not just a policy win – it’s a social vision fulfilled.

At this point, we could say: job done; very good; lots of money to members.

I disagree.

To borrow from Churchill, the first of July was not the beginning of the end, it was the end of the beginning.

We still have much work to do.

We stand at the threshold of the next chapter for the super sector and there are reforms needed.

We’ve become a world-leader in the accumulation of retirement savings.

We must become a world-leader in the delivery of retirement incomes.

To start, we must let go of our outdated notions of retirement.

You know the ones – you get a gold watch, a handshake, and head off into the sunset, never to work again. I’d say those times are pretty much gone, if they ever really existed.

Retirement today is more dynamic. Transitional. And often includes a return to work whether out of choice or necessity, or a return to different type of work.

Every society and most individuals have worried about how they’ll be looked after in old age.

The next challenge is clear: millions of Australians are approaching retirement, and they’re doing so with higher balances, longer life expectancies, and more diverse retirement paths than ever before.

But the system hasn’t kept up.

It's too complex and difficult to navigate.

Less than half of Australians feel confident about retirement. Only one in two apply for the Age Pension immediately when eligible – and more than 70% want their super fund to help them with their application.

The system should be about simplicity and dignity.

I am calling for changes to the law so Australians can easily move back and forth between work and retirement - between saving their money and spending it.

Currently the system requires members to open a separate retirement account if they want to draw down – and another if they want to keep contributing. For Bachir, that means two accounts, two sets of fees, and far too much hassle.

A streamlined system is an obvious solution. One that supports Australians from their first job through to their final years. One that allows contributions and drawdowns to coexist seamlessly. Money in and money out.

Why can’t pension accounts also integrate with the Government Age Pension to make the whole thing much easier?

Let’s rip off that red tape for all those approaching retirement.

Members shouldn’t have to apply to “join” retirement like they would a gym or a golf club.

They should be able to live their lives, as they choose, work, as they choose, and the whole thing should be seamless.

We’re also calling on the government to start the work to allow the secure sharing of relevant government data with super funds, allowing us to give members the full picture of their retirement incomes, including what pension they’re eligible for.

This will allow funds to give simple, easy and tailored guidance to members when they need it most.

I would urge you to not underestimate the need for, and the power of, simple, easy and tailored guidance and advice. There are too many Australians uncertain about their futures because we haven’t collectively resolved this complex issue.

These are complex reforms. But they’re practical. And they would make a meaningful difference to the two-and-a-half million Australians about to retire.

They would give members flexibility and, importantly, more confidence.

With guidance and information at the right time, we could support – Bachir and Claudia – to feel confident about their savings, about how much they can spend, about what choices they have, and what decisions they should make.

We have a world-class savings system. We need to build a world-class spending system.

To do this, we need to meet members’ changing and growing expectations of us. Super funds must run to keep up.

Members want strong returns. Personalised guidance. Secure digital tools.

They want all of that in an app in their pocket, at a competitive price, from institutions they trust, at any time of day or night.

The retirement system built in 1992 wasn’t designed for this.

At inception, super was a visionary savings system, but it wasn’t built for the complexity of modern retirement. And the service model wasn’t built for the modern world.

Just like in 1992, we won’t know what the world looks like when Claudia retires in fifty years.

The way we serve members will not last the distance to the next century without resetting our approach to retirement, guidance and advice.

At AustralianSuper we’re on a mission to transform member services and boost the financial literacy and retirement readiness of Australians.

Our goal is to provide each of the five million members we expect to have in 2035 with personalised guidance, and AI will have a role to play in that.

Because guidance is no longer a luxury, it’s an expectation. And we know for people like Claudia, it will make a huge difference.

Super’s next chapter must also work to solve inequities within the system.

Many Australians – especially women – have missed out on contributions during interruptions to their paid working lives.

And others – including gig workers, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and those with unpaid super – still miss out in a range of different ways.

Hitting that 12 per cent Super Guarantee is unbelievably important.

It gave us a universal benchmark. The challenge now is ensuring that every Australian – regardless of when they started working, or how – can catch up to the equivalent of 12 per cent.

We need to think of it as the fair standard that every worker should be able to reach, not just some. Universal super should be just that: universal.

We must also recognise that tax concessions are central to the success and fairness of superannuation – they’re not giveaways or foregone consolidated revenue – they are part of the long-term social contract that encourages Australians to save for retirement.

The deal here is simple: I lock my money away for 40 years and, in return, the government gives me concessional tax arrangements.

Employer super contributions are generally taxed at 15% for most Australians, and the effective tax on earnings is around 6 to 7%. Income tax paid by Australians averages around 25%.

It’s concessional, but that’s the whole point.

Tax concessions are incentives designed to reward long-term saving and shift the burden of retirement funding from future taxpayers.

As the system matures, these concessions have become more targeted and equitable.

Many of the previous excesses have been ironed out by successive governments with tighter contribution caps, higher contribution taxes for high income earners and transfer balance caps in retirement.

Reviewing tax thresholds for both high and low incomes could be a continuation of that evolution.

When we talk about intergenerational fairness, it’s important not to overlook that many older Australians had no or very low Super Guarantee contributions for much of their working lives.

Policymakers, regulators, and the super industry must continue to evolve the system to deliver a sustainable and equitable retirement for all. Concessional tax arrangements are central to that.

That brings me to the third area I want to discuss today – super’s role in national renewal.

Super has invested in critical, productivity-enhancing infrastructure for decades.

When you travelled here today, you may have driven on a toll road in Brisbane, grabbed coffee at Sydney Airport, or charged your car on an energy network we invest in.

It’s no small thing that these businesses, and dozens of others, are owned by Australians through their super fund. And the net returns generated go back to members.

The Treasurer’s Roundtable, here in Canberra a fortnight ago, underscored that as a country, we are living at an inflection point for the future of the nation.

The chance to grow the pie – slice it fairly – and improve our stature in the world, is real.

This moment calls for ambition – perhaps greater than the reform era of the 1980s and 1990s. It could be more like the mobilisation of the 1940s and 50s: bold, coordinated and long term.

Because the big challenges we face are generational: Housing. Health. The energy transition. AI and quantum computing.

The reforms needed are physical. They’re politically charged – nationally and locally – and full of ethical dilemmas.

Each requires infrastructure: people need shelter, power requires transmission, and data requires power and storage. These are multi-billion, multi-decade tasks.

We are interested in opportunities to provide this capital responsibly and at scale.

If we get the settings right, they can become investable opportunities, delivering long-term value for the nation and for members.

Superannuation can contribute to the national renewal. But, and it’s a big but, there’s no playbook for this.

The potential for super to be an engine room of Australia’s sustained prosperity is unrealised.

This isn’t and can’t be about Government telling funds what to do.

I’ve said this behind closed doors and in front of the cameras and I’ll say it again – it would be a disaster for members if governments tried to tell us what to invest in. Members carry the investment risk, and it is their money.

The solution requires government and funds to come together in open dialogue about how to better balance risk and make projects investible.

Big national projects must consider who is best placed to bear the risk. That is: who should own what and when.

Government’s job is determining the direction of the country and the services and infrastructure that underpin it.

The job of super funds is to deploy capital into productive investments to bolster members’ retirement savings.

Those two competencies can and should be mutually reinforcing: building the businesses the nation needs, done very well, will generate the returns members need.

One way this can work is for governments to build assets, with the plan to sell or lease them later to long-term investors like super funds.

Or as I like to say: build to sell... that’s a model very much worth exploring.

They can build secure in the knowledge it is more likely there will be a willing buyer, at the right time and the right price.

This is a natural evolution of a process that state and federal governments have used many times in this country.

The assets are created and built with the knowledge that one day their value will be unlocked. That benefits the taxpayer - because governments will have more to spend on new projects - and the worker, through returns to their super balances over the long term.

We have about $40 billion of members’ money earmarked for investment in Australia over the next five years.

If you're a company with a good idea, if you're a government with a big plan - our door is open. We’re ready to invest but only when it benefits members – and where risk adjusted returns warrant the investment.

What are we interested in? Deepening the corporate bond market, supporting innovative businesses, critical infrastructure that supports Australia’s future.

So, superannuation has a role in national renewal…But not every project will stack up for members.

We must be clear-eyed about where interests align, and where they don’t.

We must recognise the difference between the national interest and the interests of organisations and individuals.

Part of government’s role is to build things that are important for Australia, but which don’t necessarily make the kind of financial return super funds need.

Super funds think long-term, but our returns must be real. And I mean real versus nominal. Our default investment option – where most AustralianSuper members are invested– targets CPI plus 4%. That’s a benchmark designed to grow members’ savings ahead of inflation.

We must break the piggybank mentality.

Super is not a trillion-dollar fix-all. It cannot – and should not – be used to solve every complex national problem.

As a nation, we can't just keep referring every difficult issue to the ACCC, put it in the national curriculum, or get super to pay for it.

That misses the point… and I reject that school of thought. It’s not smart policy thinking.

We need governments and industry – including super – to do better.

Much better.

None of us can cross our arms or close our imaginations to the very real needs of the rest of the century.

This is a caution for every Parliament - state and federal - over the next 75 years, between now and when Claudia retires.

The Federal Treasurer has identified key priorities and is working hard to bring people together – he deserves recognition.

Let’s keep that collaboration going. Our doors are open.

Let me leave you with this thought: Australians are excellent at mining, farming and banking – especially mortgage lending. And we’re pretty good at swimming too.

Over the last forty years, we’ve built another world-leading industry: superannuation. 

Today I’ve discussed super as an Australian success story. Built on the hard work of members – like Claudia and Bachir. Shaped by government vision and policy. A business success story – and most importantly, a member success story.

Next, I called for a simpler retirement system – an urgent need for the coming wave of retirees - and essential so all Australians can live well in retirement into the next century.

Super funds have the opportunity to be a powerhouse of Australia’s renewal – a chance for the sector, business, unions, the community and governments to find the sweet spots between national ambition and investment returns.

I started today saying super was about people and numbers - let me leave you with one more: six million.

That’s the number of Australians who will be over 65 within the next three decades. We owe it to them to get this right.

Thank you.