Month: July 2025

Source: New places to play in Gungahlin

Scheduled due dates for unclaimed super

APRA funds are to report and pay unclaimed super money (USM) in the approved form by the scheduled statement due dates as follows:

• for an unclaimed money day being 31 December of any year – 30 April of the following year
• for an unclaimed money day being 30 June of any year – 31 October of that year.

Note: These scheduled due dates don’t apply to trustee voluntary payments (TVPs). However, the existing USM effective dates can be used to report TVP.

The approved form contains all the information, statements, and declarations you’re required to provide. You don’t have the discretion to determine what information will or will not be provided.

If you have no unclaimed money, lost member accounts or inactive low-balance accounts to report and pay, you’re required to advise us of this by lodging a non-lodgment advice.

Reporting where more than one category applies

An amount you hold with respect to a member may be assessed as meeting more than one category. If this happens, only report and pay the amount to us once.

Follow the order of precedence below to report and pay in the correct category:

1. non-member spouse or deceased member
2. member who is a former temporary resident identified on a section 20C notice
3. member who has reached eligibility age
4. small or insoluble lost member account
5. inactive low-balance account
6. trustee voluntary payment.

Trustee voluntary payment

Trustee voluntary payments (TVP) are amounts in respect of a member, former member or non-member spouse where the trustee reasonably believes paying the amount to us would be in the best interest of the person.

This doesn’t include the following amounts required to be paid to us under another provision of the Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999 (SUMLMA):

• an amount that meets the conditions for unclaimed money
• unclaimed super for former temporary residents identified in a section 20C notice
• held in an inactive low-balance account or lost member account.

Depending on the status of the person (member, former member or non-member spouse), the fund will need to consider a range of factors when forming a view about whether transferring an amount to us would be in the person’s best interests, including:

• the history of contributions, rollover, drawdowns or other activity of the member, former member or non-member spouse
• whether there are any insurance premiums being deducted from the account
• the history of contact with the member, former member or non-member spouse
• whether previous attempts to contact the member, former member or non-member spouse have resulted in a member-initiated change to their superannuation arrangements.

If the fund has recent contact information for a former member, they should take reasonable steps to provide notice to that member at their last known postal address, to give them an opportunity to provide alternative instructions before transferring any amounts to us.

At the time the fund pays the TVP, the fund must give us an unclaimed superannuation money statement. The information required by the statement may include information necessary to determine the tax free and taxable components of the amount paid to us.

TVP amounts can be paid to us at any time provided at the time the payment is made, the amount is not covered by one of the compulsory obligations in the SUMLMA (see scheduled due dates for unclaimed super ).

What to do in common situations

Former temporary resident dies

If your member is a former temporary resident for whom you received a section 20C notice, and you also hold an amount in respect of that member that satisfies the definition of unclaimed money in circumstances where the member has died, report the amount as unclaimed money (as a deceased member).

Don’t report it as a superannuation interest of a member who is a former temporary resident.

Former temporary resident reaches eligibility age

If your member is a former temporary resident for whom you received a section 20C notice, and you also hold an amount in respect of that member that satisfies the definition of unclaimed money in circumstances where the member has reached the eligibility age, report the amount as a superannuation interest of a member who is a former temporary resident.

Don’t report it as unclaimed money of a member who has reached the eligibility age.

Lost member reaches eligibility age

If you hold an account in respect of a member that meets the definition of a lost member account and the amount held with respect to the member also meets the definition of unclaimed money in circumstances where the member has reached eligibility age, report the amount as unclaimed super as a member who has reached eligibility age.

Don’t report it as a lost member account.

Inactive low balance account and lost member account

If you hold an account in respect of a member that meets the definition of both an inactive low balance account and a lost member account, report the amount as a lost member account.

Don’t report it as an inactive low balance account.

Make sure lodgment has been accepted

You must take action in the following situations to make sure that we have accepted and processed your lodgment:

• If we successfully process your data message, we will send your gateway an unclaimed super money outcome response (USMOR) message. USMORs may be delayed during peak USM lodgment periods.
• If your gateway didn’t receive an USMOR, and
  • also didn’t receive a technical receipt – your gateway provider should re-send the message
  • did receive a technical receipt – lodge a request via the Super Enquiry Service with details of the technical receipt.
• Notification of reporting issues promptly is critical to ensure your members are not affected. You must reconcile your data and payment messages in a timely manner.
• If you get a data message error – you must take the necessary corrective action and resend the message within 30 days. When you re-send your data, use the same payment reference number (PRN) on the matching payment message to ensure synchronisation occurs. For help with matching new messages with old payments lodge a request via the Super Enquiry Service.
• If we receive a payment but we reject or don’t receive the matching data message, we will not return the payment to you. On request, we can only refund overpayment amounts.

Correcting mistakes on statements

If you become aware of a material error or omission in any information in the statement, you’re required to correct and resubmit the adjustment no later than 30 days after becoming aware of it. If you need help, contact us by lodging a request via Super Enquiry Service.

Interest and penalties may apply. To help minimise these, lodge as soon as possible.

Increase adjustments

If your adjustment involves an increased unclaimed money amount, report this to us by sending a new lodgment for the additional amount.

Decrease, transfer, or cancel adjustments

Use the USM adjustment template if you need to decrease, transfer, or cancel a previously reported entitlement. You can then send a new USM lodgment to report the correct entitlement.

Examples of how to make adjustments

 

 

For more information, see Adjusting unclaimed superannuation.

USM reporting and preservation status

It’s compulsory to report preservation information when a member’s account is transferred between funds. However, once an account is paid to the ATO, the preservation character is no longer retained. In addition, when a rollover occurs from ATO-held money to a fund, the benefit amount is all characterised as preserved.

You don’t need to disclose to us if you haven’t correctly reported the preservation amounts when you pay USM, as this is not an error that requires remediation.

Unpresented cheques and unclaimed money

In some circumstances you may be required to make payments out of the fund via cheque. For example, when paying a Departing Australia superannuation payment (DASP) online claim or a superannuation death benefit. In some instances, those cheques remain unpresented and go stale after a period of time.

The following example provides guidance on the actions you may take in this circumstance.

Example: when a cheque is unpresented

In June 2021, ABC fund identifies their member, Ira, as deceased. They undertake to pay a super death benefit to his nominated beneficiary, Ben. Ben is a non-dependant of Ira, so the fund is required to pay the amount as a lump sum and withhold the relevant rate of tax.

ABC fund determines that the lump sum has a taxed and an untaxed element.

The fund prepares and lodges a pay as you go (PAYG) payment summary and remits the correct amount of tax to the ATO. The fund issues Ben with the PAYG payment summary along with the net amount as a cheque.

Ben doesn’t present the cheque. Despite the fund making reasonable attempts to contact Ben, the cheque goes stale after a 12-month period. In August 2022, the fund cancels the cheque and assesses the amount as unclaimed money – deceased member. The fund determines that they have not received an amount in respect of Ira within the last 2 years. They are unable to ensure that the benefit is received by Ben, so they pay the amount to the ATO as unclaimed money.

The fund reports and pays only the net amount as unclaimed money under the deceased TFN. This is the amount that is currently held by the fund in the name of the deceased member. They report the net unclaimed money amount as a tax-free component, as the appropriate tax has already been withheld and remitted to the ATO for the benefit.

Ben later claims the unclaimed money amount from the ATO. We pay it and any interest owing from ATO-held super without tax as it has been reported as unclaimed tax-free.

End of example

For more information, see Unclaimed superannuation money protocol.

Source:

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

Source: Murray Darling Basin Authority

Mr Speaker, in the last few weeks Australians right across the country have been shocked and sickened by the news in Victoria.

A person arrested and charged with multiple heinous offences against children.

Offences allegedly committed in child care centres.

The mums and dads of thousands of children are now dealing with the fear that their children could be hurt or are sick, and the trauma of getting them tested.

This is a live investigation and the matter remains before the courts.

But I have been pretty blunt in the last few weeks.

People have been arrested and convicted for offences like those alleged before.

And governments of different colours, State and Federal have taken action.

But not enough.

And not fast enough.

That’s the truth.

We have to do everything that we can to ensure the safety of our children when they walk – or when they are carried – through the doors of an early childhood education and care service.

At centres across the country big and small. But not just there. In family day care, and in-home care and at outside school hours care.

And this Bill is part of that.

In short, it will give us the power to cut off funding to child care centres that aren’t up to scratch when it comes to safety and quality.

Services that don’t meet the standard when it comes to safety and quality, or where they are in breach of the law or are acting in a way that puts the safety of children at risk.

This power will apply to all forms of early education and care that are eligible for the Child Care Subsidy.

Centre-based day care.

Family Day Care. 

In Home Care. 

And Outside School Hours care too.

Funding is the big weapon that the Australian Government has to wield here.

Australian taxpayers are the biggest funders of child care centres.

We do that through the Child Care Subsidy.

$16 billion dollars a year.

Centres can’t operate without it.

It covers about 70 per cent of the average cost of running a centre.

It pays for things like wages and rent and electricity.

This legislation gives us the power to suspend or cancel that funding if a centre is not meeting the quality, safety and other compliance requirements that are put in place by our national system of early childhood regulation. 

This is how that system works.

The Education and Care Services National Law sets the standards we expect child care centres to meet. 

State Government Regulators are responsible for rating centres and enforcing the standards.

Most centres meet the standards now, but not all.

If State Regulators think there is a real and imminent threat to safety they can shut a centre on the spot.

And they do.

Sometimes though they will identify problems in centres that can and need to be fixed.

And sometimes those problems remain unfixed.

That’s where this legislation comes in.

The real purpose of this legislation isn’t to shut centres down but to raise standards up.

To make sure that the safety and quality in child care centres is what parents expect and what our children deserve.

This is how it will work.

It will give the Secretary of my Department the power to take into account a provider’s quality, safety and compliance history when considering whether a provider should be approved to administer the Child Care Subsidy, or whether they should continue to be approved, or if they should be approved to operate a new service.

That has never been part of the Child Care Subsidy system since it started in 2018. It will be now.

This change will tie a centre’s eligibility to administer the Child Care Subsidy directly to their record on quality, safety and compliance.

And it will allow the Secretary of my Department to cut off access to the Child Care Subsidy where standards are not being met.

That might mean cutting funding to an existing provider or service, or denying a provider the ability to expand until they have met the required standards.

Under these changes, the Secretary of my Department will be able to impose conditions on a provider’s approval, or to move immediately to a process to suspend or cancel that approval on the basis of safety and quality concerns.

Where conditions are imposed, a provider must meet those conditions within a specified timeframe if they want to maintain their approval.

This could include a condition that the provider comply with directions from their state regulator. It might require them to follow a quality improvement plan or hire a quality and safety expert to help them lift their standards.

As I said a moment ago, the Secretary of my Department can also move immediately to a process to suspend or cancel a provider on the basis of quality and safety concerns. That involves issuing a formal notice to the provider requiring a response within 28 days.

If the provider doesn’t give a good explanation in that period, the Secretary of my Department can cancel or suspend their approval.

It’s a process that permits providers an opportunity to engage with my Department where they have a genuine commitment to improve.

These powers will be used in close collaboration with states and territories, backing in their core role and responsibility regulating quality and safety. 

It means the Commonwealth can use the power of the Child Care Subsidy funding to lift the standards of providers not doing the right thing – and ensure those that aren’t up to scratch don’t get access to Commonwealth funding.

This Bill also expands the Commonwealth’s powers to publish information about providers that are sanctioned for non-compliance.

The Secretary of my Department already has the power to publicise actions such as suspending or cancelling a provider’s approval for the Child Care Subsidy. 

The information is available in the Enforcement Action Register on the Department’s website, along with other information such as how the department issues infringement notices and imposes conditions on approvals.

This Bill expands that power to include the power to publicise when a provider is refused approval for a new service. 

It also gives the Secretary of my Department the power to publish other compliance action taken against providers, such as when conditions are applied – including the details of those conditions.

Or where an infringement notice has been issued, including the details of the notice, such as the alleged contravention and the fine amount.

Conditions and infringements are very important, because they point to specific things a provider must fix to stay eligible for the Child Care Subsidy. 

Parents should know when a centre their child attends, or one they are thinking of using, is subject to a condition or has received an infringement.

When this legislation is passed, the Secretary of my Department will expand the breadth of the Enforcement Action Register to include those things I have just outlined. 

I have asked the Secretary of my Department to ensure the Enforcement Action Register provides parents and other organisations with as much information as possible, given the circumstances of each matter.

Providing more detailed information on compliance actions and refusals of new services is important to ensure parents have the information that they need to make one of the most important decisions in their child’s early years. 

About who they want to put their trust in to care for their child.

It will also ensure transparency for company directors and board members, who may not be directly responsible for the day-to-day management of the provider, but who play an important role in ensuring their organisations are taking the steps needed to keep children safe in early childhood education and care.

The Bill also gives the Commonwealth’s authorised officers more powers to do their job. It allows them to perform spot-checks and to enter premises without consent during operating hours to detect non-compliance across the sector.

It means that the Commonwealth’s officers don’t need to get a warrant or other pre-authorisation to inspect a centre, an outside schools hours care service, or family day care service.

These Commonwealth powers largely mirror arrangements that are already in place for state and territory regulators of early child and education care under the National Law and Regulations.

The primary purpose of these compliance officers is to monitor compliance with the family assistance law. This is a serious issue in early education and care.

Over the last three years, this Government has allocated $221 million dollars in additional funding to detect and prevent Child Care Subsidy fraud, and this has helped claw back around $318 million dollars for the taxpayer. 

These new powers add to this.

If while the compliance officers are there, they identify safety and quality concerns, they will also be able to share that information with State Government regulators to take action.

A person who does not co-operate with an authorised person seeking access commits a criminal offence – and is liable to a civil penalty.

The Bill also includes a number of other integrity measures.

It will allow the Secretary of my Department to delegate the power to apply for a monitoring warrant to an appropriately qualified Executive Level officer. 

Monitoring warrants are an effective tool in conducting Child Care Subsidy fraud and compliance investigations. These changes will streamline processes allowing warrants to be requested and issued more quickly.

The Bill also makes amendments to allow the Secretary of my Department to delegate their existing power to appoint an appropriately qualified and experienced expert to conduct audits of large child care providers.

This power is expanded to allow delegation to a Senior Executive Service employee. This will further streamline the process for appointing auditors, an important tool in ensuring integrity and compliance in the sector.

The Bill also makes important changes to how gap fees are collected from families who use Family Day Care and In Home Care.

The Bill makes an amendment to require all Family Day Care and In Home Care Providers to collect Child Care Subsidy gap fees directly from families. This will reduce the administrative burden on individual educators so they can focus on providing education and care to children. It will also improve transparency and integrity of Child Care Subsidy funding.

Mr Speaker, the purpose of this Bill is not to shut child care centres down.

It’s to raise standards up.

This is not about leaving parents stranded without care for their children because of fixable or minor short-comings at their service.

But this legislation is also not an idle threat.

Services, be they are centre-based day care, or family day care, or in-home care, or outside school hours care, know what they have to do to consistently meet national quality standards.

Providers that can improve their services to meet the standard will get the chance to do that.

Services that don’t, can’t, or won’t will lose their access to funding.

I think that’s fair. And I think most Australian parents will too.

Mr Speaker, this Bill also isn’t the only thing we have to do to improve safety in child care centres.

There is a lot more.

After Ashley Paul Griffith was arrested and charged in Queensland with multiple child sex offences, Education Ministers across the country commissioned the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority – ACECQA – to conduct a Child Safety Review.

Education Ministers have agreed in principle to the key recommendations of that review. 

Some have been implemented. But there is more work that needs to be done.

That includes establishing a National Educator Register to help track workers from centre to centre. And from state to state.

It also means mandatory child safety training to support the 99.9 per cent of educators who care for our children every single day and do a fantastic job, to help them to recognise the people in their centres who are up to no good. 

After 4 Corners exposed appalling examples of abuse and neglect on 17 March this year, the New South Wales Government commissioned Chris Wheeler, a former Deputy New South Wales Ombudsman, to undertake an independent review of the New South Wales Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority. 

That Review recommends increasing penalties on services for offences that are largely factual or procedural, and for which prosecution is currently the only avenue available. 

It also recommends services be required to display their compliance history alongside their quality ratings to help families make informed choices about child care.

The Wheeler Review also recommends allowing the regulator to require that a provider install CCTV when they identify a potential risk to the health and safety of children at a service, or when the service has failed to meet quality standards for an unreasonable period of time. 

These recommendations and more will be considered by Education Ministers when we meet next month.

The other area where serious work is needed is to improve the operation of Working with Children Checks.

Problems here were identified a long time ago.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended the Commonwealth Government facilitate a national model for Working with Children Checks.

At the moment the systems in different states work differently.

In some States the Working with Children Check is valid for five years. In others it’s two or three years.

In some States only people over eighteen working with children require a Check. In others this is required from the age of fourteen or fifteen.

Jurisdictions also differ in how they assess both criminal and non-conviction information, as well as patterns of behaviour.

There are also issues with getting real time updates to Working with Children Checks and information sharing between jurisdictions. 

This system isn’t run by Education Ministers. In some States it is run by the Attorney General. In others it is Ministers with responsibility for Child Protection, Human Services, or Families and Communities.

Next month the Commonwealth Attorney General will also bring her state and territory counterparts together to address these serious issues.

Mr Speaker, there is no more serious work than this.

I want to thank my friend and colleague, Senator Jess Walsh, the Minister for Early Childhood Education and Youth, for her leadership on quality and safety in early learning and her work in bringing this Bill to the Parliament. 

And I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Minister for Education, Jonno Duniam, and the Assistant Minister, Zoe Mckenzie, and their teams for the serious and professional and bipartisan way they have engaged with us on this legislation.

To make sure we get it right.

It’s what mums and dads across the country want of us. And expect of us.

They are not interested in excuses.

They expect action.

They expect all levels of Government to work together and the people that run child care services to join us in this work as well.

We all know, no party, no government, State or Federal, has done everything we need to do here.

That’s obvious.

But I think everyone here is determined to do what needs to be done to rebuild confidence in a system that parents need to have confidence in.

A system that more than a million mums and dads rely on to care for and to educate the most important people in their world – their children.

This legislation is an important part of that.

It’s not everything.

The truth is this work will never end.

But this is an important step.

And I commend this Bill to the House.

Source: New South Wales – News

Southern District CIB detectives searched the Maslin Beach property on Saturday 26 July and allegedly located 7.5 litres of 1,4-Butanediol (liquid fantasy), 23 steroid vials, 81 suboxone strips, various prescription medications, cannabis products, $5550 in cash and drug equipment.

A 35-year-old man and a 24-year-old man, both occupants of the address, were arrested and charged with trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug and other serious drug offences.

They were refused police bail and will appear in the Christies Beach Magistrates Court today.

Anyone with information about illicit drugs can report it anonymously to police via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online at www.crimestopperssa.com.au

CO2500030688

Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

The Northern Territory Police Force has arrested two youths in relation to a robbery that occurred in Katherine on Friday.

Around 7:20am, three male youths allegedly followed a 90-year-old man from Railway Terrace to Katherine Terrace, where one of the youths grabbed the victim’s keys from his pocket. All three fled the scene on foot back towards Railway Terrace.

Witnesses flagged down nearby police who arrested two male youths aged 13 and 14 nearby.

The victim was assessed and did not require medical attention.

Investigations remain ongoing to identify and locate the outstanding offender.

Police urge anyone with information to contact police on 131 444. Please quote reference NTP2500074944. Anonymous reports can be made through Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via https://crimestoppersnt.com.au.

Source: New places to play in Gungahlin

Source: New places to play in Gungahlin

Assistance with your application

You can apply onlineExternal Link or on a paper form for early release on compassionate grounds.

We’re unable to process applications over the phone, but we can answer any questions you have about completing your application – phone us on 13 10 20.

We don’t charge for processing applications, but some third parties may charge a fee to assist with preparing and submitting an application on your behalf. These entities can only charge you a fee if they’re a registered tax agent. To check if a provider is a registered tax agent, use the Tax Practitioners Board registerExternal Link.

Your super can’t be released to cover the fees of registered agents that assist you to apply. Where you have paid a fee to a registered agent who assisted you to apply, you can’t claim this fee as a deduction in your income tax return.

Sharing myGov details

You should never share your myGov sign in details with anyone else, including registered agents or health practitioners. Doing so is a breach of the myGov terms ofExternal Link use, compromises the security of your records, and can result in significant consequences for you, including having your myGov account being locked, suspended, or deactivated permanently.

Where you share your myGov sign in details with third parties, you are responsible for everything they do with your account, including any penalties where false or misleading statements have been made.

Before you apply

Before you apply you should:

1. carefully review the information we provide here to
2. confirm you have a sufficient super balance to cover the expense and withholding tax
3. check if your super fund allows early release of super
4. collect all the documents and evidence required to support your application.

If you have a self-managed super fund (SMSF), you must still apply to us and get our approval before releasing any money from the fund.

Before submitting your application, you need to ensure that all the information you’re providing is accurate, including the content within medical reports and other documents you provide. Penalties can apply to anyone who provides inaccurate information in their application.

Common errors when applying

Applications need to be supported by the right evidence for the specific compassionate release ground. Failing to provide the right evidence will result in delays in processing the application or it not being approved.

Common errors when applying include:

• Attaching out of date quotes or invoices for unpaid expenses.
  • Quotes must be no more than 6 months old.
  • Invoices must be no more than 30 days old.
• Not providing the right medical reports to support your medical treatment.
  • You must obtain a medical report from the relevant registered medical specialist in the area of the medical condition that you’re applying for release to treat.
  • If you’re applying for treatment to alleviate an acute or chronic mental illness, the relevant medical specialist report must be completed by a psychiatrist.
• Applying to prevent the foreclosure or forced sale of your home from a mortgage lender and not providing all evidence requirements: default notice, letter from the mortgage lender and a utility bill.
• Applying for release to prevent foreclosure or forced sale of your home for ineligible expenses such as a personal credit card debt, outstanding rent, or other personal loans.
• Applying to purchase a vehicle for medical transport where the vehicle costs more than $20,000 and not including additional information that supports the need for the specific vehicle.
• Applying for the expense of a dependant and not including sufficient evidence to support the existence of an interdependent or substantial financially dependent relationship.

For more information on evidence requirements, see Access on compassionate grounds – what you need to know.

How to apply

Online application process

You can access our online application form via your myGov accountExternal Link linked to ATO online services.

From the ATO online services home page, select the heading option Super, then Manage, then Compassionate release of super.

Ensure you’re aware of the following information before completing your online application:

• You need digital copies of the required evidence. We accept photos of documents. Supported file formats are PDF, gif, jpeg and png. We don’t accept screen shots of text messages, emails or Google documents.
• Our system can’t accept more than 20 attachments.
• Each attachment needs to be smaller than 10 MB.

Applying to repay borrowed amounts

Our online and paper application forms currently indicate that paid expenses are not allowable expenses for compassionate release of super purposes, including where the expense was paid using borrowed money – such as through obtaining a loan, using credit facilities, or other borrowing of money, including from family or friends.

We’re currently in the process of updating these forms to be consistent with the information on our website. Until the forms are updated, if you’re applying to repay a borrowed amount that is still outstanding and can’t be paid via other means (in part or full), you’ll need to do the following.

When completing our:

• online application, you need to select the tick box advising ‘The expenses have not been paid’ because the unpaid expense is the outstanding balance of the borrowed amount
• paper application, the question ‘Have the expenses been paid?’ needs to be answered ‘No’ because the unpaid expense is the outstanding balance of the borrowed amount.

You will also need to provide additional documents to support the borrowed amount, including a paid invoice or receipt, statutory declarations and financial documents.

Benefits of applying online

• Online applications are generally processed more quickly than paper applications, which can take up to 28 days to process.
• You can view your application and the documents you provide at any time.
• You will receive a receipt ID that confirms we have received your application and can be used to discuss it with us.
• You don’t have to make copies of your evidence or send them via post.
• You’ll receive the outcome of your application quicker via your myGov inbox.
• Our online application includes a help function to help you apply correctly.

If you can’t apply online

If you don’t have access to our online services to submit your application, request a paper application form by:

• phoning us from within Australia on 13 10 20 (8:00 am to 6:00 pm, Monday to Friday AEST).
• phoning us from overseas on +61 2 6216 1111 (8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday AEST) to request a paper application form.

If you apply from overseas:

More than one person applying for the same expense

You can apply for the same expense as another person if all people applying need to pay different parts of the same expense. If you and another person are applying for the same expense, each person will need to:

• complete and submit a separate application
• meet the eligibility criteria
• provide the applicable evidence (including documents showing the expense is in the names of all applicants).

The sum of the amount requested in the separate applications must not be more than the total amount of the invoice or quote.

What to expect after you apply

When reviewing your application, we will treat you respectfully and professionally. We will respond to your application fairly and in a timely manner as outlined in the ATO Charter.

We will assess your eligibility in accordance with the limited grounds for compassionate release of super. This normally occurs within 14 days (28 days for paper applications). You can check the progress of your application by using our self-help interactive voice response. You will need to provide your tax file number (TFN) and date of birth.

While assessing your application, we may contact you or third-party providers about the evidence you provided, particularly if there is incomplete or missing information. This includes validating expenses in the invoices and quotes, and the information provided in reports.

Once we have assessed your application, we will let you know the outcome by either phone or SMS and you will receive a letter in your myGov InboxExternal Link or via post if you apply on a paper form. You will also be able to access our letter on ATO online services under communication history. Our letter may take up to 72 hours to arrive (or more if it is sent by post).

If your application is successful, we will send a copy of the approval letter to your super fund. You will then need to contact them directly to release your super.

How to withdraw your application

You can’t amend your application after it has been submitted.

To withdraw an application, contact us and provide us with your application reference number.

If your application is approved

Release of your super

If your application is approved, once you receive our approval letter, you must contact your super fund to arrange release of your money.

You’ll need to provide your fund with a copy of our approval letter to process your payment. The letter can only be used to release one lump sum payment. You should wait for your approval letter before contacting your super fund to arrange for release of the approved amount.

Your super fund will automatically deduct the tax from your super account. See Tax on super benefits and Schedule 12 Tax table for superannuation lump sums for more information.

Super funds have their own processes and timeframes for releasing money from super. If you need to know how long it will take for your fund to release your money, you will need to ask them. We don’t have any role in determining how long this takes, and we can’t assist you in relation to the release after we send the approval letter.

After you have received your amount

After you have received your release from your super fund, you must pay the expenses that were approved with the amount released from your super fund.

You also need to keep your receipts for the paid expense as you may need to provide this information to us.

Your super fund will also issue you a payment summary that will display the amount released from your super balance and the tax withheld.

When lodging your income tax return for the relevant financial year, you need to include any taxable amounts shown on the payment summary. If any releases from your super aren’t pre-filled when completing your income tax return, you need to manually include these as per the payment summary. See Tax return instructions for more information.

If your application is not approved

You’ll receive a letter advising the reasons your application was not approved. We will also try to contact you via phone to explain our decision.

The reasons for non-approval generally fall into the following categories:

• You didn’t meet eligibility conditions. You or the expense you applied for are ineligible (because, for example, you paid the expense without borrowing money). Submitting further applications or a review request will result in the same outcome.
• If your application was not approved because you didn’t provide sufficient evidence, you need to submit a new application with all the required documentation. If you request a review of our decision without providing additional evidence, it will generally be unsuccessful.
• If your application was partially approved and you have new evidence, you need to submit a new application with the required documentation for the additional amount.

If you don’t understand our decision or believe we have made a mistake under the law, you can contact us so we can explain our decision.

Request a review of our decision

If after contacting us, you consider that we made a decision that was incorrect based on the information in your application, you can request a review of our decision.

Generally, you must submit your request within 14 days of the date of the original decision letter. In your review request, you need to specify why you believe our decision is incorrect.

For instructions on requesting a review, see Compassionate release of superannuation – request for review of decision.

Source: New South Wales – News

Just after 11pm on Saturday 26 July, police were called to a house on Stebonheath Road after reports of a disturbance.

A struggle has occurred between two men at the house after one of the men made threats with a firearm.

Patrols arrived and found a 53-year-old Taperoo man dead from a gunshot wound, believed to be from a gun in his possession.

The gun was recovered nearby.

A 31-year-old man from the house is assisting police with their enquiries.

As a result of ongoing investigations into the incident police today, Sunday 27 July have arrested two women and a man in relation to a report of a disturbance which occurred on the evening of Saturday 26 July at a hotel on Main North Road, Smithfield.

This disturbance is believed to be linked to the Munno Para West incident.

A 21-year-old woman from Blakeview was arrested and charged with affray and act likely to cause harm, a 22-year-old woman from Munno Para West and a 31-year-old man from Campbelltown were both arrested and charged with affray.

The group have all been served a three-month liquor licence barring order, excluding them from the hotel.

They have been bailed to appear in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court on the 9 September.

The trio are continuing to assist police with their enquiries, and it is believed all parties are known to each other.

Source:

28 July 2025

The demand for ‘greener’ bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation is gaining traction worldwide, but operators should heed cultural differences when marketing their sustainable facilities, according to a new international study.

Led by Hong Kong Shue Yan University and the University of South Australia, the survey of 800 people from 37 countries examined how cultural values, age and education levels influenced tourists’ acceptance of environmentally sustainable features in B&Bs.

Previous global studies have indicated that many tourists are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly accommodation, but this is the first time that researchers have focused specifically on cultural attitudes towards B&B sustainable practices.

The study focused on five categories of sustainable facilities: water treatment systems (rainwater harvesting systems, greywater); greenery systems (sky gardens and vertical green walls); sanitation (hand sanitiser and air purification units); ventilation (natural air or air conditioning); and eco-friendly facilities (LED lights, organic composting bins).

Tourists from rules-based, autocratic and hierarchical countries such as China, India and Malaysia expressed the strongest support for all types of green features in B&Bs. Deemed ‘high-power distance’ cultures, citizens of these countries were more likely to use energy-saving products and choose natural ventilation over air conditioning, the survey revealed.

University of South Australia (UniSA) researchers Dr Li Meng and Professor Simon Beecham, who co-authored the study published in Consumer Behaviour in Tourism and Hospitality, say other cultural dimensions were less clear cut.

“Western cultures such as Australia, the United Kingdom and United States, appreciated rooftop gardens and vertical green walls, but these features were not strong factors in whether they chose a bed and breakfast,” according to the UniSA researchers.

Tourists from risk-averse cultures such as Japan, France and Greece were less likely to embrace B&Bs with natural ventilation, preferring to control their environment with air conditioning, the researchers say.

Highly-educated travellers rated sanitation and eco-friendly features more favourably, and younger tourists placed greater value on green systems than older people.

“These findings challenge assumptions that all green tourists are alike,” says lead author Professor Rita Yi Man Li from Hong Kong Shue Yan University.

“Many accommodation providers want to operate more sustainably, but few have considered how cultural values affect guest preferences,” Prof Li says.

“This research shows that guests from different cultural backgrounds respond differently to the same green features. Understanding these nuances can help B&B owners tailor their sustainability investments more effectively depending on their most important tourism markets.”

Dr Meng says younger guests may be drawn to visible features like rooftop gardens, while more educated visitors may look for practical elements like composting, LED lighting, or air purification systems.

The researchers say that governments also have a role to play in supporting the development of sustainable B&Bs.

By offering incentives, investing in sustainable infrastructure, and developing policies such as easing travel restrictions and visa policies, governments can help expand the international customer base for eco-friendly B&Bs, the study recommended.

‘Does culture really matter? A cross-cultural study of demand for B&B sustainable facilities’ is published in Consumer Behaviour in Tourism and Hospitality. DOI: 10.1108/CBTH-04-2024-0135. The study involved a cross-disciplinary team of researchers with expertise in economics, real estate, literature and environmental science.

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UniSA researcher contact: Professor Simon Beecham E: simon.beecham@unisa.edu.au
Hong Kong Shue Yan University researcher contact: Professor Rita Li E: ymli@hksyu.edu

Media contact: Candy Gibson M: +61 434 605 142 E: candy.gibson@unisa.edu.au