Superannuation must be treated with the utmost of respect by all governments and above all it must not be taxed. Superannuation is not a cash cow. It is the property of individual workers held in trust by the government as a vehicle of survival when they are no longer able to work for a living.
Logically the more you take out of the pool in taxes the less there is to pay out at the end.
Abbott should immediately announce that any government he leads will remove all taxation from Superannuation so as to maximize the end product.

But why should superannuation be considered "sacred" in contrast with other personal savings?

Superannuation, other than for the tax benefits, is a bad investment. Personal investments offer better returns than superannuation and if one has any debts (including mortgage), then repaying them is even better. The superannuation industry offers worse deals than open personal savings, simply because they know that the investors are held hostage. True, people can circumvent it by having their own self-managed fund, but that's a horrid and expensive bureaucratic procedure which only the wealthy can afford.

It is a typical nanny-state attitude to believe that people are not responsible enough to save themselves for old age or a rainy day.

Superannuation, introduced by the ALP came in with a bang.
Liberals and their pup the Nationals, as is thier normal, said it would bankrupt this country.
The sky was going to fall.
It is evolving, and will continue to.
I think it time not faraway we may see it replacing for most of the work force an aged pension.
Remember changes have let some use it as a tax haven, putting far more in every year than some do in a lifetime.
I think multi hundreds of thousands ,spent then collecting pensions,will stop.
Say 50% may well be reserved to pay a pension not government funded while the rest can be spent housing and such.
Cutting any tax must not harm other parts of the country,s things we fund.

said it would bankrupt this country.
The sky was going to fall.
Belly,
Yep ! It's starting to happen now & the pace is quickening or haven't you noticed ?

Cutting any tax must not harm other parts of the country,s things we fund.
Belly,
I suppose those "things" include ex Ministers & bureaucrats for the rest of their life.
We can & must cut Tax in Australia. There's more than enough money to go round it's just that far too much of it is locked within the sponge that is the public Service.
A service which has lost direction & is now one of the greatest hurdles for this country to overcome.