APRA’s 2026 results put one default superannuation product below the line. It belongs to the fund built for Queensland’s building and construction workforce, and it missed by a margin most readers will not have seen reported.
One superannuation product out of the 50 default options APRA tested this year did not pass. It belongs to BUSSQ, the fund built for Queensland’s building, construction and civil industries.
The regulator published the result on 28 August. BUSSQ’s Balanced Growth MySuper option failed, covering 66,480 member accounts and $6.45 billion in member assets as at 30 June 2026. It is the first MySuper product to fail since 2023.
For builders the result raises two questions with different answers. What it means for the people on their sites who hold the account, and what it means for employers whose enterprise agreements name the fund.
BUSSQ was the only MySuper product of 50 to fail the 2026 test
APRA assessed 547 superannuation products this year, covering 61 per cent of member benefits across the sector. Twelve did not pass.
Eleven of those were platform trustee directed products, the kind usually held through an adviser. Only one was a MySuper product, which is the default option most working people hold without ever choosing it. All 356 non platform trustee directed products passed, as did the other 49 MySuper products.
APRA chair John Lonsdale said the test had cut the number of members sitting in underperforming products over five years, but that pockets of underperformance remain and trustees need to act on them.
BUSSQ has published the notice required of it, confirming the regulator advised the fund that the option did not pass for the financial year to 30 June 2026.
The margin was 2.2 basis points
This is the part the coverage has skipped.
The test produces a single number for each product. APRA’s published methodology states that a product fails if that number is minus 0.50 per cent or lower.
BUSSQ scored minus 0.522 per cent.
The fail was by 0.022 percentage points, or 2.2 basis points. On APRA’s own figures, a result of minus 0.499 per cent would have been a pass.
That is not a defence of the outcome. It is still the lowest test measure of the 49 MySuper products for which APRA published one, below every retail product and every other industry fund. But it changes how the result reads. This is a product that has drifted to the edge of its benchmark across a decade, not one that has fallen off a cliff.
What the performance test measures
An annual assessment run by APRA under Part 6A of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993.
It compares a product’s actual investment return against a benchmark built from that product’s own strategic asset allocation, then adjusts for administration fees against a benchmark fee.
The lookback period runs up to ten years. For established products it is the full ten.
A combined result of minus 0.50 per cent or lower is a fail. Anything above that is a pass.
It measures performance against a benchmark. It does not rate a fund’s service, insurance or governance.
Fees were not the problem
APRA said this year’s failures were driven largely by weaker investment performance rather than higher administration fees and costs, which the test also takes into account.
The BUSSQ figures bear that out. Its representative administration fees and expenses came in at 0.185 per cent against a benchmark of 0.231 per cent. The fund is cheaper than the benchmark, so the fee side of the calculation worked in its favour.
The whole shortfall sat on the investment side. Over ten years the option returned 7.04 per cent a year net of investment costs and finished 0.57 percentage points a year behind the benchmark portfolio built from its own asset allocation.
The useful translation for anyone holding the account is short. A low fee fund is not automatically a good fund, and this is the clearest recent example of the difference.
The two construction industry funds went opposite ways
Australia has two large superannuation funds built specifically for building and construction. Cbus operates nationally through United Super. BUSSQ operates out of Queensland. Plenty of Queensland enterprise agreements name both.
They did not land in the same place. Cbus recorded a test result of plus 0.561 per cent. BUSSQ recorded minus 0.522 per cent.
Over ten years the Cbus Growth MySuper option returned 8.19 per cent a year net of investment costs. The BUSSQ Balanced Growth option returned 7.04 per cent. That is a gap of 1.15 percentage points a year, sustained across a decade, between two funds serving substantially the same workforce.
That is a gap of 1.15 percentage points a year, sustained across a decade, between two funds serving substantially the same workforce.
APRA also publishes a net return figure for a representative member holding $50,000. On that measure Cbus returned 7.82 per cent a year across the ten years and BUSSQ returned 6.66 per cent. Compounded across the same decade already measured, the Cbus rate turns $50,000 into roughly $106,200 and the BUSSQ rate turns it into roughly $95,300, a difference of about $10,900 on one mid career balance before a single further contribution is counted.
What happens next depends on the 2027 result
A first fail triggers two things under the Act. Section 60E requires the trustee to notify affected members. APRA sets that at 28 days from the date the trustee is advised of the determination, using a prescribed form of notice. The fund must also make a description of the circumstances available on its public website, which BUSSQ has done.
Section 60F deals with the second fail. A product that fails in two consecutive years cannot accept any new beneficiaries until it passes a future test. Existing members stay where they are. New ones cannot join.
The 2027 test will be run on returns to 30 June 2027 and published around August next year. Nothing about the status of the fund changes before then.
The employer question is a bargaining question, not a payroll one
Here is where the result lands on builders rather than on members.
BUSSQ is named as a nominated default fund in a large number of Queensland construction enterprise agreements, frequently in the paired form of Cbus or BUSSQ, and is promoted through CFMEU Queensland and Northern Territory, the Civil Contractors Federation Queensland and the BERT and Construction Income Protection network.
Right now, employer obligations have not changed. Stapling means a new employee’s existing fund follows them, so most hires never touch the default. Contributions remain valid and the product remains open. The bigger operational shift this year was the move to payday super. That reset how super sits in a builder’s cash flow rather than which fund receives it.
The exposure sits twelve months out. If BUSSQ does not pass in 2027, the product closes to new members. An employer whose agreement names it as the default for new starters would then be nominating a fund that cannot accept them.
Fixing that is not a payroll change. It is a clause in an enterprise agreement, which means bargaining or a formal variation, and neither moves quickly. Superannuation clauses are one of the quieter parts of running a building business, and they surface only when something forces them open. Builders with agreements due for renewal inside the next eighteen months have a reason to read that clause now rather than in August 2027.
For members, the position is set by law rather than by the fund
Exit fees on superannuation were banned from 1 July 2019 under section 99BA of the Act, other than a buy sell spread, so moving between funds carries no departure charge.
Two things about the result are worth understanding. The test is a floor, not a rating. Passing means a product cleared a benchmark, not that it performed well, and several products sat only just above the line this year. The test also covers accumulation products only. Members who have moved into a retirement product running on the same underlying investments receive no equivalent notice, a gap Super Consumers Australia has raised publicly.
BUSSQ has said it takes the result seriously, that member savings are not affected and that the option remains open to new and existing members. The fund has also said it reviewed its investment strategy last year and made material portfolio changes as a result.
The number that decides this is twelve months away
The performance test is a blunt instrument. It measures one thing across one window, and says nothing about whether a fund chases unpaid super onto a site or picks up the phone when a member is hurt. In this industry both of those matter.
But blunt instruments still measure something real. A decade of returns 1.15 percentage points behind the other construction fund is not a rounding error, and 2.2 basis points is not much of a buffer against the same result landing again.
For members, the letter arrives and the options stay open. For builders with an enterprise agreement naming the fund, August 2027 is not a news date. It is a deadline.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. BUSSQ’s Balanced Growth MySuper option was the only one of 50 MySuper products to fail APRA’s 2026 annual superannuation performance test, published on 28 August 2026. It recorded a test measure of minus 0.522 per cent against a fail threshold of minus 0.50 per cent, and covers 66,480 member accounts and $6.45 billion in member assets. It is the first MySuper product to fail since 2023
Under section 60F of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993, a product that fails in two consecutive years cannot accept any new beneficiaries until it passes a future test. Existing members are not moved and are not locked in. They can stay or leave. The restriction applies only to new members joining the product.
Not after a first fail. The product stays open, contributions remain valid, and nothing in an employer’s payroll process changes. The issue arises only on a second consecutive fail, because the product then closes to new members. An employer whose enterprise agreement names that fund as the default for new starters would need to vary the agreement, which is a bargaining process rather than an administrative one.
Cbus passed. Its Growth MySuper option, offered through United Super, recorded a test measure of plus 0.561 per cent and a ten year net investment return of 8.19 per cent a year. That is 1.15 percentage points a year ahead of the BUSSQ Balanced Growth option across the same decade.
Passing means the product cleared a benchmark built from its own asset allocation, after an adjustment for administration fees. It is a floor rather than a mark of quality, and several products passed this year by narrow margins. The test also does not assess service, insurance terms or governance, so it answers one question rather than the whole question.
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• The Payday Super Timebomb: What 1 July 2026 Means for Builders Running on Tight Margins
Last updated 1 September 2026. Figures drawn from APRA’s 2026 annual superannuation performance test and the 2026 Comprehensive Product Performance Package, both published 28 August 2026, and current as at 30 June 2026. This article will be reviewed on release of the 2027 performance test.
General information only. This article reports publicly available regulatory data and describes how the superannuation performance test operates. It does not take into account any individual’s objectives, financial situation or needs, and it is not a recommendation to acquire, hold or dispose of any financial product. Readers should consider obtaining independent professional guidance before making decisions about superannuation or enterprise agreement terms.
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