Tax white paper a 'white elephant': Bowen

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen backs the Abbott government's tax white paper process, he just doesn't like the way it is being handled.

"The white paper has become a white elephant, the way the government had handled this process," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

His comments come after the International Monetary Fund recommended that the concessional tax treatment of superannuation on higher incomes should be reduced, something the government has already ruled out but an issue Labor wants to pursue.