Prime Minister Scott Morrison has dumped the plan to raise the pension age to 70, announcing the decision on breakfast television even before Cabinet has formally agreed to it.
It was one of the issues on which Labor had repeatedly attacked the Government, especially highlighting the impact for people with physically difficult jobs.
Former treasurer Joe Hockey announced the plan to lift the pension age from 67 to 70 in his controversial 2014 budget in a bid to help fund the cost of the ageing population.
The Senate has refused to ever agree to legislation to formalise the change, but until today the Government had stuck to the policy.
Mr Morrison told Channel Nine he did not think the measure was needed anymore.
“It is one of the things I will be changing pretty quickly,” Mr Morrison told Channel Nine this morning after facing a question on it from a viewer.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said overturning the previous policy it was a “pragmatic, sensible move”.
“I think if you are a tradie, or a brickie or a shearer in rural and regional Australia you don’t want some suit in Canberra telling you you are going to have to work until you’re 70,” Mr McCormack told Sky.
“It’s hard, back-breaking work what a lot of our people do and I think being told that they are going to have to work until 70 I think was probably a step too far.”
It is the first major policy back down Mr Morrison has made since becoming PM.
“I was going to say this next week, but I may as well say it here, I have already consulted my colleagues on that and next week Cabinet will be ratifying a decision to reverse taking the retirement age to 70.
It will remain at 67, which is what Labor increased it to.
“The pension age going to 70, gone,” Mr Morrison said.
The pension age has already started going up from 65.
People turning 66 in the first half of next year will have to wait until July to qualify for the pension.
The next stage kicks in from July 2021 when the age to qualify for the age pension goes up to 66 years and six months. ABC News
