Is super a bigger political bomb than Medicare? We're about to find out

But a hint at what they really think is that they have no plans to move to a 15 per cent guarantee, Paul Keating's original vision.At the same time, Treasury and Grattan have warned in recent years that super may be over-preparing people for retirement, such that retirees spend very little of their super before they die or even increase their wealth, passing on large inheritances.A Treasury retirement income review in 2021 studied the accounts managed by one large super fund and found that members died with 90 per cent of the super they had retired with on average.Ironically, Labor itself has used this argument when it has proposed less generous tax treatment for those with very high super balances — and the Coalition has usually been on the opposite side of that debate.But when it comes to the super guarantee, the roles are reversed, and the Treasury finding of 2021 informed a view among many on the conservative side that the guarantee was too high.Some would even like to wind back the clock, lowering the guarantee to perhaps 10 per cent But there would be no guarantee that businesses would pass the savings on and, if they did, it would be an inflation risk.Instead, the Coalition has gone to the last two elections campaigning to erode super a different way; by letting first homebuyers tap their super for a home deposit, an idea spearheaded by Bragg and now-shadow treasurer Tim Wilson.It's not clear this has been a major factor in either election, for good or ill, but it is hated by economists who say it will push up house prices and will not solve the crisis.That may even be a design feature