Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Polley for her question, but at the outset I must clear up a misconception that I think Senator Polley is still labouring under, and that is that the government at any stage put forward a proposition to cut pensions. It did not. Pensions have continued to go up under this government and, even under the proposition of the previous budget, would have continued to go up. But it was clear that the proposition in relation to indexation did not enjoy the favour of this place and would have enjoyed a challenging future here.

But one of the great things of the last three, four or five months is that there are a number of senators in this place—and I am looking particularly at the crossbench—who have been very prepared and very willing to engage in discussions about how to put the pension on a more sustainable basis. Minister Morrison has had very fruitful discussions with senators across the chamber—including on occasion with the Australian Greens, it is important to add. We have always made it clear that, for a proposition to come off the table, there had to be something else on the table. We now have something else on the table, and we have made it clear that if colleagues of goodwill and, indeed, stakeholders, including ACOSS, had propositions that they thought could achieve a similar outcome in a different or even a better way then we were only too happy to engage in that discussion. Minister Morrison, I think, has brought forward a very good and positive package in relation to pensions that will see them more sustainable, will see them fairer and will see a lot of pensioners get more money. (Time expired)