Australians must brace for a serious conversation about how aged care can be sustainably funded into the future, the government says.

This includes proposals that could require wealthy individuals to “ring-fence” a portion of their superannuation to pay for their own aged care.

In June, Aged Care Minister Anika Wells announced a task force of economic, finance, public policy, First Nations and consumer advocacy representatives would be set up to advise the federal government on how to get more funding into aged care.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the task force would consider a range of funding options.

However, he said a proposal for wealthy Australians to use their superannuation was a conversation the nation would need to have.

“It strikes me as odd in a system which is about retirement income … that a third of the value of cheques that superannuation funds are writing at the moment are bequests,” Mr Jones told ABC News

“It’s not the purpose of superannuation to have a tax-preferred estate planning mechanism, it’s about providing for people at the end stages and in their retirement.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she did not think taxes were the answer to funding the aged care system.

“Suggestions that involve new taxes and new levies are always going to be of concern to us,” she told reporters in Canberra.

“We’ve got a government who said ‘no new taxes’ when they came into government

“But we do want to work constructively with the government for sustainable solutions in aged care, because it’s just too important to get wrong.”

The task force is preparing an interim report, due in October, before its final report is handed to the government in December.

– AAP