federal budget 2024-25

Following over a decade of advocacy by HESTA and others, we were pleased to see funding committed in the Federal Budget to pay super on the Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave scheme for parents of babies born or adopted on or after 1 July 2025.

Payments will be made annually to individuals’ super funds from 1 July 2026. This important equity measure will reduce the impact of career breaks to care for young children on super balances and support parents, particularly women, to achieve a more dignified retirement.

Start date: 1 July 2025

In good news for those members accessing the Age Pension, the government announced a further 12-month extension to 30 June 2025 of the current freeze in deeming rates. This will assist part pensioners receiving income from bank deposits, investments and members with a retirement income stream, which are considered under the deeming rules governing eligibility for the Age Pension.

Freezing deeming rates allows retirees to benefit from increases in interest rates and returns without reducing their Age Pension. 

The deeming rate has been frozen for the last two years with the top rate unchanged at 2.25%.

Extended to: 30 June 2025

For members that are still working, the flagship cost-of-living support measure announced in the Budget is the already legislated stage three tax cuts. This will see all Australian taxpayers (earning over the tax-free threshold of $18,200) get a tax cut. This can help ease cost-of-living pressures on household budgets.

The government will provide $3.5 billion in energy relief. From 1 July 2024, all Australian households will receive a total rebate of $300 and eligible small businesses will receive a $325 rebate on their electricity bills throughout the year.  

A 10% increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance was also announced, potentially benefitting an estimated 1 million households that rent. 

With housing affordability and availability of social housing continuing to be an important issue, the government has announced additional measures to support building homes for more Australians.

$6.2 billion of funding for new initiatives over five years will be contributed into housing programs — aimed at easing the rental crisis. Importantly, other measures in the government’s broader $32 billion housing plan include $1 billion for crisis and transition accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and concessional financing of up to $1.9 billion for community housing providers and other charities to support 40,000 new social and affordable homes. In addition, there’s a doubling of Commonwealth homelessness funding to $400 million every year.

We were pleased to see the government commit to a range of measures designed to contribute to recruitment and retention of the health and community services workforce. These included funding provisions for the aged care and early childhood education wage increases, more flexibility for carers, and approximately $320-a-week ‘prac payment’ for eligible nursing, teaching, midwifery and social work students.

So many of our 1 million HESTA members spend their working lives providing vital care for communities. However, these critical roles are typically lower paid. So, we welcome more support that can help our members achieve greater financial security in retirement.

Payday super, announced in last year’s Budget, will shift super guarantee (SG) payment cycles from a minimum of quarterly to align with pay cycles by 1 July 2026.

This year’s Budget included an allocation of $60 million from the workplace relations portfolio to support productivity initiatives and implement policy changes including the introduction of payday super. However, no further information was provided regarding implementation of this reform that will help members more easily track their super contributions and ensure that their retirement savings can be invested and begin growing sooner.

We expect further details will be finalised in coming months to support a 1 July 2026 start date and will communicate these updates to you to help you prepare.

The Budget also contained measures to help pursue unpaid superannuation entitlements owed by employers in liquidation or bankruptcy. It expects to return $44.4 million to member accounts from 1 July 2024.

$10 million will be spent over two years from 2024–25 to provide additional support for small business employers in administering Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave pay.