Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

When it comes to the pension, the pension will continue to rise in line with inflation. We have not made any decisions whatsoever to change the indexation arrangements for the pension. I think that that question, the way you're framing it and the way you seek to scare vulnerable Australians, is very dishonest indeed. When it comes to JobKeeper, of course we need to phase out of these historically unprecedented, transitional, crisis-level support arrangements. That is what none other than Mr Albanese used to say. In May, June and July he was on the record saying we've got to phase out this historically unprecedented level of support. He is right, because we need to allow the economy to adjust so that it can get into the new normal and start growing again from the new baseline. That is what we need to do.

Quite frankly, we were hit with a crisis. We needed to pause and put in place all the appropriate support mechanisms. But now, moving forward, we've got to allow the economy to transition out of the crisis into the new normal and for those businesses which have the opportunity to be successful, viable and profitable into the future to have the best possible opportunity to succeed. That is why we are pursuing, again, our pro-growth agenda which the Australian people voted for before the last election. That is why we're providing—

Opposition senators interjecting—