A second Liberal backbencher has called on the government to fix its policy on the age pension, warning it could be “a very significant” election issue and saying he planned to have a “robust” conversation with Tony Abbott.
The former chief whip, Warren Entsch, said on Tuesday he would make the case on behalf of many pensioners in his electorate after comments from fellow Queenslander Andrew Laming that it was one outstanding issue raised by backbenchers before last month’s failed spill motion against the prime minister.
But Entsch, who spoke out about internal Liberal processes in the lead-up to the motion, also praised Abbott, saying he was pleased the operation of the party room had improved and argued it reflected “good government”.
The budget decision to reduce the rate of increases to the age pension from 2017 has attracted fresh scrutiny after the intergenerational report indicated the government might switch back to the higher rate in 2028-29 when a strong surplus was predicted.
Entsch said the way the pension issue had been “addressed up until recently has provided very fertile ground for the Labor party and others wanting to create mischief to be able to run a scare campaign”.
He pointed to visits to Queensland by the federal Labor frontbencher Jenny Macklin during the state election campaign when she was “holding meetings in bowling clubs and the likes and frightening the living hell out of pensioners”.
“I certainly have concerns about the way in which it has been handled in the past,” Entsch told the ABC on Tuesday.
“It opened the door for this type of mischief-making, if you like. We were not consulted. The broader members of the party at the time – it was not discussed with us. We also expressed concerns about this, but it did provide that fertile ground for the Labor party to go right off the Richter scale.”
Entsch said pensions could be a “very significant” issue at the next federal election, due next year, but he had “no doubt that it will be sorted”.
He said the prime minister was listening and he gave “full marks” to the new social services minister, Scott Morrison, for taking “a calculated and considered” look at pension policy.
“You’ve seen that happening already, you’ve seen it happening on defence pay [and] the Medicare co-payment,” Entsch said, referring to government policy shifts.
“At the end of the day when we start talking about where we need to go I will certainly be putting the case of my many pensioners to the party room and to the prime minister, and I’m absolutely confident that my view will be listened to.
“I think that it’s a very, very different party room now to what it was a few months ago. I welcome the changes and certainly look forward to having a robust discussion with the prime minister and with the minister.”
Entsch told Guardian Australia he would not comment on the specific policy solution he wanted the government to adopt, but said last week’s Liberal party room meeting was “brilliant” and “the best we’ve had since we’ve been in government”.
“I think if we can keep it going like this – it’s reminiscent of much of the Howard period,” he said. “It’s good government.”
John Howard’s former chief of staff, Arthur Sinodinos, who supported the spill motion, said Abbott had heeded the message from his party room but would ultimately be “judged on his performance”.
“We had the spill motion and certain undertakings were given by the prime minister,” Sinodinos told the ABC.
“The mood of the backbench, as you can see by the fact that it was a 39-to-61 loss, was that the prime minister should be given the time, the clear air, to change things that were of concern to the backbench and ministers, and we give him the time to do all of that and then we see how things go.”
Abbott said on Monday the government still planned to link age pension increases to the consumer price index (CPI) from 2017 – a shift from the existing arrangement of matching CPI or wages growth, depending on which was higher.
He said it was “a perfectly reasonable measure to put in place for a period of time until the budgetary position is substantially improved”.
“There are no plans to make any changes to the age pension other than those that were announced in the budget last year,” the prime minister said during a media conference in Western Australia.
The policy has attracted criticism from seniors’ groups on the basis that it would reduce the value of the pension relative to wages growth over time, and the government faces a struggle to secure Senate approval.
Macklin said Labor would “fight Tony Abbott every day between now and the next election to ensure these changes never see the light of day”.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Abbott accused the opposition of “running around complaining” with no answers or solutions.
“On the subject of pensions, can I make myself crystal clear? The pensioners of Australia are better off under this government … because we’ve scrapped the carbon tax and kept the carbon tax compensation.”
