Peter Costello has warned the $230 billion Future Fund he founded risks becoming a political slush fund and that Labor could next raid people’s superannuation as the Coalition questioned if Jim Chalmers was breaching the law designed to stop politicians meddling in the fund.

Mr Costello, who as treasurer set up the fund with the proceeds of budget surpluses in 2006, said bipartisan consensus on non-intervention to protect the independence of public institutions such as the Future Fund and Reserve Bank had been undermined, marking an end to Australian exceptionalism.