Budget will dictate whether Coalition winds back super tax

The Federal Opposition says the time to stop the Government making any adverse changes to the superannuation tax settings is now, rather than waiting until after their inclusion in the Federal Budget.

Asked by Money Management whether the Coalition would be in a position to wind back any tax changes, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann, said it would be better for the industry to campaign to stop the changes before they were included in the Budget.

"The time to stop further Labor Government attacks on people's retirement savings is now," he said. "We've called on the superannuation industry to stand up for their members against a Labor Government that wants to use their retirement savings like an ATM."

Senator Cormann's response has come amid suggestions that a Coalition Government might find it difficult to wind back any changes to the superannuation tax settings if it is confronted by a worse-than-expected Budget position after the election.

"We don't want to see any more tax increases targeting super in the budget, given Labor has already imposed more than $8 billion in additional taxes targeting people doing the right thing by saving for their retirement," he said.

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Cormann said the Coalition had drawn a clear line in the sand and that, in Government, it would not make any detrimental unexpected changes to superannuation policy settings, including taxation arrangements.

"But given the state of the budget after five years of Labor, we won't be able to fix every new additional mess Labor creates between now and the election on day one," he said.