A superannuation fight is brewing as the federal government flags the possibility of changes to tax concessions to help ease budget pressure. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says superannuation concessions are on track to cost the budget as much as the aged pension by 2050 and has launched a discussion about their sustainability this week. 

The treasurer has since flagged a cap on large super balances as a possible way to make super concessions more “affordable and sustainable”.

Several super funds have backed a $5 million limit on account balances, while the Grattan Institute and other groups have called for a lower cap on balances open to super tax concessions. 

But the shadow treasurer said superannuation was not a piggy bank for the government to tax and spend. 

Speaking at a super industry event on Wednesday, Angus Taylor said the government had “no mandate” to tax super.

“These are private savings. Fundamentally super is Australians’ money, not the government’s,” he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the coalition would block any moves by Labor to change the arrangements around superannuation. 

“We’d seek to block it in the first instance because it’s clearly a broken promise,” he told Nine’s Today Show. 

“The difficulty in the superannuation space is that people want certainty around that investment class.

“If you create that uncertainty, then people won’t invest, and the whole idea of superannuation is it provides for people’s retirement so that they can lead a dignified retirement.”

Mr Taylor said the coalition was open to superannuation changes that would allow people to use funds for house deposits. 

“With the clarity that super is for retirement, the coalition will support changes that see super work better to deliver retirement outcomes for Australians,” he said.

“Housing is essential to this.”

Mr Taylor said changes to superannuation must be predictable, certain and consistent with election promises. 

“These are long-term investments and shifting the goal posts in ways that take away from super, rather than add to it, leaves Australian retirees in the cold,” he said.

Speaking at an SMSF Association conference, which is a body representing Australia’s self-managed super fund sector, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said he was not singling out the self-managed sector for attack.

“But it is timely to have a conversation about what a dignified retirement means in the context of a sustainable retirement system,” he said.

He said the savings needed to fund a dignified retirement were evolving and would continue to change.

“But it seems to me that many people will be able to have a very dignified retirement well into the future with a balance that is significantly lower than $100 million,” he said.

“And there will be a time and a place to consider how we might sensibly transition so that it minimises unnecessary disruption.”

More than 600,000 super funds are self-managed, amounting to about $870 billion in retirement savings. 

By Maeve Bannister and Poppy Johnston in Canberra

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