“The only priority of the superannuation system should be to provide income in retirement,” he said.

“If you have a mandatory regulated superannuation system, then it’s more likely that it remains politicised. Hence the need for the objective.”

If objectives for the superannuation system aren’t firmed up and adhered to, questions over the effectiveness and usefulness of the superannuation system will be inevitable, Mr Murray said.

“If we don’t make some improvements, we will increasingly have to ask the question: would we have been better off without this system? Would people have saved just as much anyway? Would they have invested that wisely themselves, in whatever way they do, and would we have been better off?” Mr Murray said.

“It’s not clear that we’ve made an overwhelmingly strong start in the superannuation system, there are a lot of people who only started at three per cent who won’t have adequate outcomes in retirement. We need to clarify that objective and get the system depoliticised and as simple to operate as we can,” he added.