© 2026 Zoe. All rights reserved.
Zoe is a legal information platform. Always consult the official source for authoritative text.
Commonwealth act
This is the founding law that created the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS) — the retirement savings scheme for Australian federal government employees who started work before 1 July 1990. It is one of Australia's oldest and largest defined benefit superannuation (retirement savings) schemes.
Want the full deep dive?
Zoe can write the in-depth analysis on top of the summary above: how it works, who it affects and what each part actually does.
Direct links to the current provisions in Superannuation Act 1976.
Zoe has indexed the source text for search and analysis. Use the official register for the original document and download formats.
View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
For the relatively small number of people still covered by this scheme, it directly controls how much retirement income they will receive. The CSS is a defined benefit scheme — meaning your pension is calculated by a formula based on salary and years of service, not just investment returns. This is generally more generous and more predictable than modern super funds, but also more complex. The rules in this Act lock in those entitlements and obligations.