CANBERRA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday abandoned a long-term plan to raise the nation's retirement age from 67 to 70.
Morrison said that the pension age would not be raised under his government, meaning Australians will receive government support from the age of 67 should they choose to retire.
The controversial plan was first announced in 2014 by then Treasurer Joe Hockey in an attempt to lower the cost associated with Australia's ageing population.
It marks Morrison's first major policy backdown since becoming the prime minister in late August.
"I was going to say this next week, but I may as well say it here, I have already consulted my colleagues on that and next week the Cabinet will be ratifying a decision to reverse taking the retirement age to 70," he said in an appearance on breakfast television.
"In this year's budget I announced a whole package of measures to help Australians live a longer, healthy and more active life and that included things like the pension work bonus and supporting people who are older to actually get access to the pension when they are running a business, and I think those measures are positive measures."
"I don't think we need that measure any longer when it comes to raising the pension age and it is one of things I will be changing pretty quickly."
The pension age was increased from 65 to 67 under the then Australian Labor Party (ALP) government in 2009.
