Most Australians want to be able to tap into their retirement savings to buy a home, a poll has found, as parties jostle over how much control people should have over their superannuation.

The idea was backed by 60 per cent of the 1583 eligible voters surveyed by DemosAU, in what might prove a political boon for the Coalition.

The result came on Tuesday just hours after Liberal senator Andrew Bragg floated an idea to let people use retirement savings as collateral to secure a home loan.

The proposal, which is not Coalition policy, aimed to prevent Australia becoming a nation of “retired renters”, using super to increase buyers’ power while not necessarily draining from their retirement funds.

It’s a potential adjustment to a Coalition policy to let workers set $50,000 of their super aside to buy a home, which fell flat in two election campaigns.

While DemosAU’s respondents backed siphoning from their super to purchase property, a One Nation plan to let workers divert a quarter of their retirement contributions into their own pockets performed far poorer.

The statement “people should be able to reduce their super contributions to increase their take home pay” got the nod from just 41 per cent of those surveyed. Most of the remainder were unsure.

That differed from a One Nation-commissioned Compass poll released on the same day, showing 62 per cent of respondents supported putting super into wages, including 60 per cent of Labor voters.

The government has bristled at any suggestion of allowing workers to put retirement savings into home purchases or their pockets. On Tuesday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers described such policies as “vandalising” the scheme.

Bragg did not outline who would be eligible for the policy or how it would interact with the government’s 5 per cent deposit scheme, which he has vehemently criticised.

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said the proposal would mean less economic security for workers.

“Attacks on super would make Australians worse off and put even more pressure on the budget,” he said.

“Their proposal is for less super at retirement and less economic security for workers.”

But 55 per cent of the Labor voters canvassed supported using super to lock down a home loan, along with 59 per cent of Coalition voters. An unsurprising three-quarters of the One Nation cohort giving the policy a tick.

Super Members Council chief executive Misha Schubert said Bragg’s approach did not address what was really keeping budding buyers out of the housing market.

“The way to improve housing affordability is to significantly boost housing supply. It’s not to risk further pushing up house prices and rents with … raiding people’s super,” she said.

Former Reserve Bank economist Peter Tulip earlier said Bragg’s idea had his “qualified support” and could be a nifty way of boosting power and curtailing recklessness from buyers.

-AAP