Local MPs Sharon Bird and Stephen Jones have vowed to protect pensioners in Cunningham and Throsby from Tony Abbotts latest cuts to the pension.

The day before the election, 6 September 2013, Tony Abbott famously promised No change to pensions.

The very same day, he promised:

We will not do any deals with independents and the Greens.

Fairfax op-ed 6 September 2013

But since the election Tony Abbott and the Greens have teamed up to cut the pension in a grubby deal, scrap the debt ceiling and increase petrol tax for Australian motorists.

Around 330,000 pensioners are facing a cut to their pension, including 7,760 people in the seat of Cunningham and 8,410 people in the seat of Throsby.

Sharon Bird said that this deal will do nothing for pensioners except see them have their pension cut.

Within ten years, more than half of all new retirees will be affected by this cut. Single pensioners will lose as much as $8,000 and couples will lose as much as $14,000.

And while the Government might claim that all these pensioners are rich. That is just not true. Pensioners with as little as $289,000 in assets will lose because of this cut.

Stephen Jones said that Labor would continue the fight for pensioners.

For 12 months, Labor has stood alongside Australias 3.5 million pensioners to fight Tony Abbotts cuts to pension indexation. The only thing that prevented Tony Abbott from getting his way and pushing pensioners into poverty was Labor.

We have made it clear that we would continue to fight for Australian pensioners and oppose these cuts. Whilst everyone knows Tony Abbott will do anything to cut the pension, this is a new low for the Greens.