Australia. Scott Morrison scraps Government plans to raise pension age to 70
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 about why he thought it was a good idea to have everybody working until they are 70.
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