Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) acknowledges that:

(i) the United Kingdom (UK) Government has an inconsistent policy of freezing pension-indexation for expatriate UK citizens, with the payments frozen for UK citizens living in countries including Australia and Canada, but being appropriately indexed for UK citizens living in other jurisdictions, including the European Union and the United States of America,

(ii) the pension-freeze policy currently affects approximately 250 000 expatriate UK citizens living in Australia,

(iii) approximately 190 000 expatriate UK citizens in Australia access the Australian pensions system to supplement their UK pensions, and

(iv) the annual cost of this pension freeze to Australia is estimated at $110 million per year; and

(b) calls on the Australian Government to continue all reasonable diplomatic efforts to persuade the UK Government to appropriately index pensions for all expatriate UK citizens.

Question agreed to.