Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Moore for the question. Since the coalition formed government in 2013, pensions have increased by more than $99 per fortnight for singles and by more than $149 per fortnight for couples. Pensions will continue to rise twice a year. The age pension is paid at the highest fortnightly rate of income support payments and has the most generous indexation arrangements in Australia's social security system.

In 2015, the government made a decision to rebalance the age pension asset test to make the system better targeted and more sustainable. As part of this change, we also raised the asset test threshold, making it more generous to people with modest levels of assets. From 1 January 2017, around 165,000 pensioners began receiving an average $25 more per fortnight as part of the government's decision, and this included around 47,000 part-pensioners who then qualified for the full pension. Ninety per cent of pensioners are either better off or have no change to their pension under the measures. Of course, those opposite have already banked the savings of this decision at the 2016 election. So I ask those opposite—