Large swaths of the government’s signature superannuation reforms could be gutted, and the implementation of the package’s central measure delayed, under a set of amendments that are gaining support among the Senate crossbench.

The amendments, put forward by South Australian senator Rex Patrick, would do away with a proposed regulatory power giving the government a broad authority to determine what decisions are in super fund members’ “best financial interests” and delay the implementation of the package’s central measure, designed to eliminate multiple superannuation accounts, until July 2022.