Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he had a responsibility to act on changes to taxes on superannuation, following departmental advice on multimillion-dollar balances.

While there has been broad community support for doubling the tax rate for superannuation balances with more than $3 million, Mr Albanese indicated other tax changes were not on the horizon.

The tax rate for super balances more than $3 million will rise from 15 per cent to 30 per cent from July 2025, after the next election.

Mr Albanese told the Australian Financial Review‘s Business Summit on Tuesday there was a larger imperative to act after seeing figures showing 17 people had more than $100 million in their super fund.

“When you get briefed by Treasury about that, you’ve got a responsibility to act,” he told the summit.

“That was the advice that we got, and when you look at the purpose of super, it’s very clear that that’s not the purpose of superannuation, so it was a worthwhile reform to do.”

Asked if the issue had existed before last year’s federal election, Mr Albanese said he hadn’t been aware of it.

“Maybe they’re in this room; Whoever’s got the half a billion dollars in super,  if you can put up your hand – everyone’s really interested in who it is,” he said.

The most recent Newspoll found a majority of voters supported the super changes, including 80 per cent of Labor voters and 54 per cent of Liberal voters.

However, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has promised to repeal the changes should the Coalition win the next election.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the government was relying on retirees to fix growing levels of debt.

“Perhaps the Albanese government could consider changing its attitude towards its budget spending, rather than increasing taxes,” she told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

“The best way to manage a budget … [is] simply controlling those spending urges, potentially reprioritising some of that enormous election wish list that the Labor government came to government with.”

Senator Hume said cost of living issues were the No.1 concern for most Australians, and figures released last week showed the economy was slowing.

“This is a genuine concern, so the government needs to address it. It needs to do that through its sensible budget management to make sure that the RBA doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting on interest rates,” she said.

-with AAP