It is often said that to retire with dignity in Australia a couple would need a retirement income of around $50,000 per year. In order to help Australians achieve such levels of retirement incomes Australian taxpayers now contribute around $27 billion per year in tax concessions to help boost the retirement savings of so called ‘self-funded’ retirees.

We highlight the disparity between the case made for the provision of generous taxpayer support for increasing the retirement incomes of those with superannuation and the case against providing support for other potential beneficiaries of government support.