PM abandons plans to raise Australia’s pension age

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has scrapped plans to raise Australia’s pension age from 67 to 70.

The government had been considering the move but Mr Morrison says it is no longer necessary.

Cabinet will have to approve it.

“Next week cabinet will be ratifying a decision to reverse taking the retirement age to 70, it will remain at 67,” he told the Today program.

CEO of the Grattan Institute John Daley told Neil Mitchell it was a bad move.

“The reasons why we do this are, it adds substantially to the budget, in the long term it means pensions will be less, income tax collections will be higher,” he said.

“Secondly you have a substantial boost to the economy.

“The government was very sensibly planning to phase this in over an extended period.”

Neil said it looked like it was policy announcement “almost on the run”.

Click PLAY to hear more