THE SQUIZ
Speculation about the future of Australia’s $3 trillion superannuation system has been intensifying this week – and yesterday, PM Anthony Albanese said that while he doesn’t want to make “major changes”, legislating its purpose is “important”. Speaking at the National Press Club, he outlined his government’s desire to look at potential changes that could save the federal budget tens of billions of dollars down the track… That comes after Treasurer Jim Chalmers raised concerns about the sustainability of superannuation tax concessions.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
The tax breaks come in at a cost to the federal budget of $52.6 billion a year – they allow Aussies to make extra contributions using their pre-tax income, reducing their tax bill. On Monday, Chalmers said if things don’t change, more will be spent on it than the age pension by 2050. And the Albanese Government’s interest hasn’t come out of the blue – a Coalition-commissioned review into retirement income from 2020 got the ball rolling. It found the system benefitted wealthier individuals and pointed to people using it to build multi-million-dollar nest eggs that attract little to no tax. Another idea that’s been floated is introducing caps on super balances of $2-5 million. These are things that Chalmers says are “on the table” as he tries to prepare a budget that’s under pressure from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, aged care, defence and health spending requests.

AND THE COUNTERPOINT IS?
The Coalition is not happy about the potential for changes to super. Their key talking point is that at the election, Team Albanese promised not to touch it. Coalition leader Peter Dutton says the changes floated would amount to dudding older Aussies: “If you have worked hard and you’ve put your own money aside into superannuation, you don’t want the government changing the rules and taxing it effectively retrospectively,” he said. For his part, Chalmers says putting legislation in place to define the underlying purpose of super is appropriate because “beyond a certain level of income, additional government support through tax concessions is not necessary or appropriate”. Yesterday, he refused to rule out implementing changes in the upcoming May budget, so settle in…