Today I'm here to talk about two topics that are close to my heart: climate action and superannuation.

These might seem unrelated at first blush, but when it comes to Australia's future prosperity, climate action and superannuation are very closely linked. And before I explain how, let me set the scene.

As of June 2025, the total value of assets in Australia's APRA-regulated super fund accounts was $3 trillion. That rises to $4.3 trillion if you add other types such as self-managed super funds. Whichever way you cut it, Australia has one of the largest superannuation pools in the world. By comparison, the federal budget this financial year is just $786 billion.

Separately, most people in this place would agree that we need to retool the economy at pace, shifting our reliance away from energy produced from fossil fuels to energy produced from renewable sources. In other words, we need to electrify what we can and derive electricity from the sun, wind, water, plants, and other renewable resources.

Now, there are wildly different ideas about how much it will cost to electrify Australia's power system. Last year, the Australian Energy Market Operator put that cost at $122 billion. Soon afterwards, the consultancy Frontier Economics put that figure closer to $600 billion. But for argument’s sake, let's take the middle ground at $300 billion to electrify the energy system.

Now recall that Australia's superannuation funds are charged with investing $3 trillion worth of our savings. Just 0.1% of that could retool the country's entire domestic energy economy. And super funds want in on this once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform our economy. They want in from the point of view of helping their members contribute to the popular goal of finding climate solutions. And they want in also for the epic economic and financial opportunities this presents.

Andrew Lill, the former chief investment officer for REST, said last year that the transition to a lower-carbon economy and to net zero emissions is a huge and historic investment opportunity. Not only will it provide strong long-term outcomes for members, but it will also help create the world we would like to see our members retire into.

So why aren’t Australian super funds bankrolling energy transformation? It’s because of something called the superannuation performance test.

The test was designed to protect members and weed out underperforming funds. It imposes a benchmark for the return super funds are required to earn for their members. If a fund fails to achieve the benchmark two years in a row, it is not allowed to accept new members. The benchmark, as currently designed, favours short-term returns on investments. But infrastructure assets of the future—solar farms, large-scale batteries and other low-carbon projects—have very different capital and return profiles from toll roads and airports, which the current benchmark is based on.

These climate-focused, long-term investments have high upfront capital costs and low ongoing operating costs, making them struggle to meet short-term, backward-looking benchmarks. The current benchmark is not fit for the 21st century. And as the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute has noted, the test is significantly constraining the ability of super funds to adopt green finance investment strategies at scale.

Every day the current rules are in place and these future-focused investments are delayed, Australians are paying the price of slow clean-energy deployment as higher-than-necessary power bills.

We need minor, responsible updates that will allow our super funds to invest confidently in tomorrow’s economy while protecting members’ returns today. With a stroke of a pen, the benchmark roadblock could be removed—freeing billions in private capital, supporting projects governments cannot fully fund on their own, and helping balance the budget.

So I’m delighted to hear that the Treasurer, following his economic roundtable last week, said that he was going to have another look at the superannuation performance test. Treasurer, I urge you to do that soon.

This small, legislatively simple change to the test is exactly the kind of low-hanging reform fruit that could turbocharge climate action and superannuation investment returns for millions of working Australians today and into the future.