A bitter war of words is continuing between the federal government and the opposition as Labor continues to float winding back tax breaks on the nation's highest superannuation balances.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers wants what he's calling a national conversation on superannuation concessions given to account balances with more than $3 million.
Fewer than 1 per cent of superannuation accounts have more than $3 million. Of those accounts, the average balance is close to $6 million.
Speaking from India, Mr Chalmers told Sky News the tax breaks on these accounts were costing the budget close to $1 billion.
But he insisted the government hadn't made any decisions on the changes it might make.
"We care about it [superannuation], we want to invest in it, we want to make sure that it delivers a decent retirement for people," he said.
"So the fundamentals won't change, the tax concessionality [sic] will still be there but we do need to consider whether we can afford the degree of tax concessionality [sic] for people who have got very big balances."
In the last week, the government has touted some of the changes it is considering to superannuation, including defining its objective to "preserve savings to deliver income for a dignified retirement".
Along with potentially winding back tax breaks, the government also wants to steer the trillions of dollars currently in superannuation into more productive investments and prevent people raiding their balances to buy houses.
During the election campaign, Anthony Albanese said if elected Labor had "no intention" to make changes to super.
Now prime minister, he last week promised Labor had no plans to make any "major changes" and its focus firstly was to define what superannuation should exist for.
Speaking on Sunday, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said any change to superannuation would be a broken election commitment.
"This particular tax, I'm sure, is just the beginning. We'll see more as we approach the May budget," he told Sky News.
"Our money is Labor's honey, we heard it from the assistant treasurer this week. That's how they're thinking about it.
"They've got very sticky fingers, this government, they want to come after your money."
Under the current scheme, super contributions — made by your employer or by you — are taxed at a lower rate than the personal income tax rate.
That means people who make extra contributions to their super both boost their retirement savings and reduce the amount of personal income tax they have to pay.
Mr Chalmers dismissed the Coalition's criticism and said it too had changed superannuation policies when it was last in power.
He said tax breaks for big balances were being paid at a time when the government faced higher costs to fund the NDIS, defence, aged care and health budgets.
"We should be capable of a conversation that says we're not proposing major changes to superannuation, we haven't taken any decisions yet but this is an area of concern for us," Mr Chalmers said.
Mr Taylor said Labor had a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
"Labor is coming after Australians' money because they don't have enough of their own," he said.
According to a pre-budget submission by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Limited (ASFA), if a $5 million cap on superannuation was put in place it could save about $1.5 billion in tax concessions.
According to Treasury figures as at June 2020, there are approximately 12,000 people with superannuation balances above $5 million.
