Super should be 'above politics': Shorten - Sydney Morning Herald

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Superannuation Minister Bill Shorten says people's retirement nest eggs should be "above politics", but the opposition continues to press the government to reveal what changes it intends to make to super in the May budget.

Speculation has been rife for weeks that the government intends to tinker again with the super system, possibly cutting back on super tax concessions for the rich.

Finance Minister Penny Wong said there were always news stories and speculation surrounding the budget.

"On budget night, many of them will turn out to be wrong. That's almost inevitable," Senator Wong told ABC radio on Tuesday.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the government should find other ways to get its $300 billion debt under control.

"They've got to get debt under control by eliminating unnecessary government spending, not by raiding people's superannuation savings, not by attacking the superannuation piggy bank," Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney.

Labor stalwart Simon Crean, sacked from cabinet last week for his part in the aborted leadership challenge against Prime Minister Julia Gillard, believes the government should not raise taxes just to fund its return to a budget surplus.

Shadow assistant treasurer Mathias Cormann said the government should heed Mr Crean's advice and stop any class warfare attack on hardworking people saving for retirement.

But Mr Shorten said he would not be lectured on super by the Liberal Party.

"We think it is a topic that should be above politics," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne.

He said compulsory super was one of Labor's best legacies, and each time Labor had sought to increase it, the Liberals had voted against the move.

The government had also abolished tax on super contributions for people earning less than $37,000, an initiative the opposition intended to reverse, Mr Shorten said.

"When we get a lecture from the Liberals about superannuation, at some point you have got to look at someone's record," he said.

Pushed on the subject of super changes in the budget, Mr Shorten said, "I think I'm making some pretty clear signs."

Meanwhile, new resources minister Gary Gray ruled out any changes to Labor's controversial mining tax that raised just $126 million in its first six months of operation, after a full-year forecast of $2 billion.

Mr Gray, a former executive with oil and gas company Woodside, said even discussing changes right now would produce uncertainty and angst in the mining sector.

"We are not about doing that," he told ABC radio on Tuesday.

"The mining sector nowadays pays more to the state and federal coffers than ever before and that's a good thing."

Mr Gray dismissed criticism by former cabinet minister Martin Ferguson of the way the government had implemented the tax, saying his predecessor was responding more to emotion than to understanding.

A two-day Senate inquiry into the development and operation of the minerals resource rent tax will kick off in Canberra on April 3.