Labor defends not changing pension test

Labor concedes it can't make changes to the pension assets test if elected on July 2 because it will unlikely have the numbers in the Senate.

Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese Source: AAP

Labor has defended its decision not to pursue changes to the pension assets test if it's elected on July 2.

Opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese says it is a "sensible and pragmatic" move, given the likely make-up of parliament.

"The fact is that after the election, if we have the numbers in the House of Representatives, we are unlikely to have a majority in the Senate to make those changes," he told the Nine Network on Friday.

Labor also won't be bringing back the schoolkids bonus despite earlier pledging to.

Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said the revelations hark back to the "dysfunction and chaos of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd period".

"They wanted to walk both sides of the street on these issues, whether it was the schoolkids bonus, foreign aid, the changes to the pension assets test," he said.


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Source: AAP



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