I will move to amend the Government’s Defence Force Retirement Benefits Legislation Amendment (Fair Indexation) Bill 2014 to ensure that the improved method of calculating pension increases applies to all recipients.
Currently Defence Force Retirement Benefits (DFRB) and Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits (DFRDB) schemes are Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased. But this results in these important retirement pensions diminishing in real value over time. The Government is seeking to rectify this by indexing the pensions by the greater of the CPI or the pensioner and beneficiary living cost index.
Crucially though, the Government’s proposed reform would only apply to pensioners over the age of 55. My amendment would ensure the reform applies to all DFRB and DFRDB pensioners.
I am a DFRDB recipient aged 52. To avoid any conflict of interest, my amendment calls on the Government to exclude all current Senators and Members of the House of Representatives from the abolition of the age 55 criteria.
I will be available to discuss this matter at my 1.30pm media conference today (Senate Courtyard, Parliament House Canberra) regarding the Government’s repeal of the poker machine reforms.
Andrew Wilkie MP, Independent Member for Denison
