Peter Dutton warns Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese are coming to take your super

The opposition leader says it’s “quite clear” Australians’ retirement savings will be under attack in the May budget, despite Labor’s election promises to the contrary.

Accusing the federal government of wanting to hike up taxes on super to pay for its own budget measures, Peter Dutton has warned Australians when Labor “run out of money, they come looking for yours”.

The Opposition leader told News Corp it was “quite clear” the government planned to “take an axe to superannuation” in the May budget, after Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week flagged a need to ensure super concessions were “sustainable”.

Mr Chalmers has categorically rejected the Coalition’s accusation, but Mr Dutton said he did not believe Labor’s pre-election promise that there would be no “major” changes to super.

“The Prime Minister and the Treasurer now want to start a ‘conversation’ on superannuation. We all know what that means: higher superannuation taxes,” Mr Dutton said.

“The Prime Minister and the Treasurer’s pre-election commitment that they wouldn’t change superannuation rules is about as believable as their promise to reduce your power bills by $275 a year.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton warns that Labor is breaking promises not to touch your superannuation. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Dutton said Labor forgot super was no their “plaything”.

“It’s your money – not the government’s,” he said.

“In a cost of living crisis, Labor just doesn’t get it.”

In the lead up to the federal election Mr Chalmers told ABC on March 27 last year that “Australians shouldn’t expect major changes to superannuation if the government changes hands”.

Retirees soon might not be so happy to see the Prime Minister and Treasurer. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

While on January 31 that year Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said “we have not planned for any changes on superannuation”.

Mr Chalmers told News Corp what Labor was currently proposing in defining the purpose of super was not “controversial” or a “big shift”.

“It’s about settling the objective of super so that there’s more certainty about its purpose, and that’s our priority,” he said.

“We also recognise, as previous Liberal governments have, that we need to make sure we can afford all of the various concessions in the system.

Federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton visited the Laverton Training Centre where local indigenous residents are training to become rangers. Picture: Opposition Leaders Office

“The Liberals did the same thing when they announced a raft of changes to the super system in the 2016-17 Budget, including making changes to people’s super to tax them more when they earn over $250,000.”

Mr Chalmers said the last government to increase taxes on super was a Liberal one in which Mr Dutton was a senior cabinet minister.

Tax concessions on super are forecast to cost the budget $52.6 billion in 2022-23, just under the total cost of the age pension at $55.3 billion, according to an analysis of the October budget by the Australia Institute.

Labor did promise at the election it would legislate the “objective” of what Australians’ $3.3 trillion in superannuation could be used for.

The government has proposed the “objective” of super be to “preserve savings to deliver income for a dignified retirement, alongside government support, in an equitable and sustainable way”.

However the Coalition has criticised this proposal for being too restrictive over early access.