She explained that, as superannuation earnings and withdrawals are not taxed over the age of 60, a retiree household earning $100,000 per annum can pay less than half of the tax of a working household with the identical income, purely based on age.

“As it currently stands, wages and salaries from work are what we lean on most heavily in our tax system … and alongside it, we have created very generous concessions for making your income almost any other way,” she said in her address.

“But it isn’t just in the retirement phase: this inequity in tax treatment extends to incomes in working life as well, through the way we treat investment in housing, and the use of trusts and private companies.”

Sathanapally continued that analysis using tax data shows that while 95 per cent of people pay similar tax rates for similar incomes, for the top 5 per cent, the amount of tax paid varies hugely.

“Indeed, people on very high incomes can end up paying less than those on far lower incomes.”

“We know how to fix it. The solutions are legislative, and the power sits with the federal government. The problem has always been a political one: the noise that attends any suggestion that tax breaks be withdrawn. As a result, the dysfunction of this system has only worsened with time.”

She continued that this disparity can be “fixed in pieces”, firstly by reducing superannuation concessions so the system meets the policy objective of saving for a decent retirement, rather than being a tax shelter.

The next step would be introducing at least a low tax rate on earnings and withdrawals in retirement and reforms to family trusts, and reducing the capital gains discount.

“If we do nothing, our default fiscal repair strategy is to increasingly rely on taxes on employment, and in fact worse: to rely on inequitable taxes on employment, given the opportunities for wealthier Australians to minimise their taxes,” Sathanapally said.

“Addressing the treatment of income from wealth gives us far better options for the future: income tax in total can keep pace with our underlying needs and expectations without increasing the burden on a smaller, working-age population.”

Cassandra Goldie, chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Services, also said changes to super tax concessions need to be made.

Goldie told the roundtable that the superannuation system was driving “egregious wealth inequality”.

“We’re spending $50 billion in tax concessions associated with the super system. And I think people who are not getting the benefits of those tax breaks really see how unfair that system has become.”