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E&OE
DAVID SPEERS:
Minister, thank you for your time tonight. Tell me what is the nature of this deal that you have done with the Greens?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well the agreement we have come to will see the pensions changes which will give 170,000 Australian pensioners a pension increase, as a result of this, of around $30 a fortnight and changes the taper rates back to what they were in 2007 when the Howard Government changed them and we had $20 billion in in the bank – sorry in surplus and $40 billion in the bank. Those measures will pass with the support of the Greens in the Senate; they will be considered by the House tomorrow. The white paper on tax, which already has within its scope issues relating to retirement incomes, will now have an extension of six weeks for submissions that will enable people to make submissions on those matters and there will be a stakeholder engagement process around that as well which will address those retirement incomes issues. But we have got to be very clear the Government – the Government has made it crystal clear that we are not going to increase taxes on superannuation, that’s the Labor Party’s policy. Nothing that is subject to this arrangement will change any of that and that’s our view.
SPEERS:
So on that super – an enquiry is part of the Tax White Paper process, an extra six weeks to look at it and talk to stakeholders?
MORRISON:
Well six weeks for additional submissions, so we will reopen the submission process for an additional six weeks…
SPEERS:
But it is not changing the Government’s position, no changes to super this term or next term?
MORRISON:
The Government has made it crystal clear that we have no interest in increasing taxes on superannuation either now or in the future. That is clearly our view, we have no plans for that but this is an incorporation of some issues which the Greens were keen to do and that’s the nature of these discussions that you have in the Senate. I am pleased that Richard Di Natale has done what Bill Shorten didn’t do today – he focused on policy, Bill Shorten focused on politics. The Government focused on policy and Bill Shorten I think has been left as the odd man out.
SPEERS:
Can I ask you after Bill Shorten this afternoon announced Labor’s position to oppose this, this has happened fairly quickly tonight. Who came to who?
MORRISON:
These matters have been under discussion for a long period of time and I have been in discussion with the crossbenchers as well. I mean Senator Xenophon and I have been working on this, Senator Leyonhjelm and I have been talking to many of the crossbenchers Senators, and over time obviously the Greens have been engaged in this process as well. That is how the process can work if you all commit to it. I commend all of those Senators and I commend Senator Di Natale for actually being prepared to engage with the Government on good policy something Bill Shorten can’t do. He is all politics, no policy.
SPEERS:
Are you concerned that Labor will still presumably go to the next election saying that they would give pensioners a better deal?
MORRISON:
Well it will cost the Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen $2.4 billion so I suppose the question for them is will they stand by what they said today at lunchtime and commit $2.4 billion to reverse these measures if they are elected? I don’t think we will hear that from Chris Bowen and I think it just exposes how Labor has been caught out focussing on politics and not policy.
SPEERS:
Presumably the other line of attack from Labor will be that they have a plan to hit the very rich in retirement with the superannuation tax increase that they are talking about. Your plan is hitting those further down the income scale.
MORRISON:
Well unlike Labor, we are not coming after people’s superannuation. We understand the difference between superannuation that people have built up through their own savings and their own earnings and a pension payment which is a welfare payment. We understand they are very different things. We need a fairer pension and this is a fairer pension, it is a more sustainable pension. The savings are significant but at the same time we are supporting those on low levels of assets and modest levels of assets and – 88 per cent of pensioners are unaffected by these changes, around three per cent will see an increase on their pension. The balance I should stress will all have access to the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card for pharmaceuticals and bulk billing and things of that nature. So this is a good policy package and I am pleased that common sense Senators, on this issue at the very least, have been able to support it.
SPEERS:
Scott Morrison, thank you.
MORRISON:
Thanks a lot David.