The day when superannuation makes heavy inroads into the cost of the age pension seems as distant as ever. The budget papers show the age pension, the biggest component of welfare spending in Australia, is going from strength to strength. So is the cost of the tax concessions for super. The upshot is that by 2020-21, overall budgetary support for these two components of the retirement incomes system is expected to cost over $95 billion compared to just under $76 billion in 2016-17.

Governments in recent years have taken some steps to control the growth in this figure. Even so, the budget papers estimate that spending on the age pension will cost $52.3 billion in 2020-21, up from $44.7 billion in 2016-17.