QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator RUSTON (South Australia—Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (14:35): The same briefing to which I refer admits that the department 'was not aware of reliable and complete data on pensioners at the time this policy was announced'. Your government simply assumed only a limited number of full-rate pensioners would hold gold or silver cover. It was only after Senate scrutiny that your government admitted that around 700,000 full-rate pensioners will be hit by this change.

Why did you announce this cut before doing the work to find out who would be hit by it, which seems to be a hallmark of the Albanese Labor government. (Time expired)