"any possible AGED PENSION I might receive at 65.5 years not in 2017 when I turn 65 but 6months later when I turn 65.5 in 2018 unless that is changed again as you point out to 70 years [in 2022]."
etherazer, any change to 70 (which is only mooted at this stage) will be implemented very gradually.
I can't be sure, but I'd be surprised if under the present rules your access to consideration for age pension would be extended beyond where you have it above.
Much discussion will need to take place on (a) the capacity of people in physically demanding occupations to keep working beyond 60 or 65, and (b) the actual availability of jobs for them. Given many employers even now will not consider anyone over 45, the prospects for people in their 60s look pretty grim.
Something needs to be done about the age pension. The country simply cannot afford to keep it in its present form. However, there are many options as well as that of extending the age. eg means testing including the family home if it's worth more than $1M, cessation of the completely tax free status in pension phase of Super, tighter access to concessional health cards etc etc.
There is still a substantial portion of the population who are taking the view "I've paid tax so I am owed a fully indexed full age pension for the rest of my life from age 65". That idea was realistic when people fell off the perch in their 60s. The next generation might well live into their mid 90s.
We simply have to be prepared to provide for ourselves.
Obviously there will always be the vulnerable and genuinely disadvantaged who will need to be looked after, but this should not include, as it does now, everyone who has just been too lazy to save, or worse, salary sacrified extra into Super only to blow it all up when they gain access in order to then qualify for a government pension.
