Mr Morrison said on Thursday the policy had not changed, but he was "not going to limit" the terms of the review. Liberal MPs Tim Wilson and Jason Falinski have urged the government to use the review to press pause on the legislated increase, arguing it would be immoral to ask workers to put more money into an inefficient system. New Liberal senator Andrew Bragg used his maiden speech this week to call for superannuation to be voluntary for those workers earning less than $50,000 a year. The government's retirement income review is set to canvass a range of contentious issues. Credit:Colleen Petch The retirement income review was recommended by the Productivity Commission in January as part of its sweeping inquiry into the superannuation sector. Key elements of that report included the adoption of a "best-in-show" approach for super funds. The commission made clear it wanted a broad inquiry into the entire retirement income system that would look at how various elements, such as superannuation and the age pension, were affecting national savings now and into the future. It would be the first inquiry into the system since the early 1990s.

It also included a reference to the distributional effect of current policies, noting potential differences between high- and low-income earners and their approach to savings since the introduction of compulsory superannuation. Loading Michael Rice, the chief executive of actuarial firm Rice Warner, said if done properly, the inquiry could take up to 18 months, which would mean its findings would be delivered just ahead of the next scheduled increase in the superannuation guarantee. He said the Productivity Commission's findings around super had gone some way to dealing with long-term issues. The inquiry would have to look at broader issues. "You have to look at whether the age pension is at the right level. If you do that then you have to cover all sorts of other ground - there's really no limit to what might have to be examined," he said.

Mercer Australia senior partner David Knox said it would be almost impossible for the inquiry to look at retirement incomes without considering the current age at which people can access the age pension. One of Mr Morrison's first moves as Prime Minister was to drop a plan, introduced in the 2014 budget, to lift the pension age to 70 by 2035. It is now being gradually lifted to 67. By the numbers Current cost of age pension: $48.3 billion. Forecast to reach $54.8 billion by 2022-23.

Number of people on age pension: 2.3 million.

Forgone tax due to various superannuation concessions: $43 billion.

Current savings in superannuation: $2.8 trillion. Dr Knox said the government's recent changes to deeming rates also highlighted asset thresholds affecting age pension payments that acted as a second, de facto deeming rate. "Almost every country that means test pension payments only have one main test, but in this country we have two, which just adds to the complexity facing people," he said.

"The current system is almost impenetrable to most people. There's nothing wrong with getting financial advice but surely there must be a way to make it simple enough for most people to work out their retirement plans themselves." Loading Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said it appeared the government would use the inquiry only as a means to reducing retirement incomes for most Australians. "I fear that the Liberal Party will use that suggestion as an excuse to justify the cuts that they want to make to superannuation," he said. National Seniors Australia's chief advocate, Ian Henschke, said the inquiry needed to look at the entire way older Australians were financially supported in retirement.

He said this included the way deeming rates were set by the government, falling home ownership rates among retirees, and the cost of home and aged care. "With smaller families and many people living alone, they need to be able to pay for home care and aged care. This now needs to be factored into the retirement system," he said. You can't have an objective for superannuation if you don't have an objective for retirement income. Grattan Institute household finances program director Brendan Coates "We need to recognise that superannuation, the pension system, mature age unemployment, aged care and home care are all interrelated." Grattan Institute household finances program director Brendan Coates said retirement income policy had "gone off the rails" as governments had made changes to various elements without an overarching objective.

He said the inquiry had to first determine what was an adequate retirement income level and then look at how the cost of this would be met over the next two to three decades. Loading "You can't have an objective for superannuation if you don't have an objective for retirement income," he said. The government has quietly let lapse its own legislation to set a primary objective of the superannuation system as being "to provide income in retirement". It was originally proposed in the 2014 Financial System Inquiry overseen by David Murray, with then treasurer Mr Morrison introducing it into parliament two years later.