Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

So that is our strategy: take those cost-of-living pressures off households, maintain the buying power of the pensions through an ongoing twice-yearly indexation, change the rate at which it increases and therefore ensure that the very benefits that are important to the vulnerable and to those that have already made their contribution to our nation are in fact not vulnerable themselves because of our inability to finance them into the future.

In summary, I think those relying on the payments that are addressed on page 203 of Budget Paper No. 2 can be confident that their interests have been reflected. The net impact of the adjustment in the rate of increase of those pensions is captured in that table. To delve into a household by household analysis beyond what has already been published would involve a lot of analysis of other measures in the budget that are designed to improve the situation of households, take pressure off the costs of living and help build that strong, safe and secure economy and nation that we are working to achieve.

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