A Shorten Labor Government will scrap Malcolm Turnbull’s planned cut to 1.5 million pensioners, protect the energy supplement and keep money in the pockets of age pensioners.

Malcolm Turnbull’s latest budget locked-in his cut to the energy supplement, delivering a cruel blow for pensioners who are already doing it tough under his Government.
 
The legislation to implement this cut is currently before the Parliament, and would scrap the energy supplement for anyone who has become a new pension or allowance recipient since 20 September 2016.
 
If Turnbull gets this legislation through, in the 2020-21 financial year alone more than 592,000 age pensioners will have less in their pockets every fortnight.
 
New figures revealed today show that Malcolm Turnbull’s cut will hit 1.5 million age pensioners over the decade to 2028-29.
 
Axing the energy supplement will mean a cut of $14.10 per fortnight to single pensioners or around $365 a year, and a cut of $21.20 a fortnight or around $550 a year to couple pensioners.
 
The choice is simple: under Labor, all pensioners will continue to get their energy supplement, under the Liberals they won’t.
 
At a time when energy prices are on the rise, the last thing that Australian pensioners need is a cut to their household budget.
 
The fact is that Turnbull is taking money away from pensioners so big business can pay less.
 
Pensioners are losing the energy supplement of $365 a year, so Malcolm Turnbull can give the big banks $17 billion.
 
Every dollar counts when it comes to paying the bills and putting food on the table – that’s why Labor will reverse this cut.
 
Taking the axe to the pension and making pensioners worse off is another example of Turnbull’s out-of-touch priorities. When it comes to backing pensioners or backing the top end of town – Turnbull always goes for his big business mates.
 
Labor’s priorities are clear – we are investing more in health and hospitals, scrapping the cut to the aged pension and addressing cost of living pressures, and we can afford to pay for this because we aren’t giving a $17 billion handout to the big banks.
 
This Saturday voters in Braddon, Longman, Mayo, Perth and Fremantle have the chance to send a message to Mr Turnbull - we don't want your unfair cuts to pensioners.