Stefan Postles/Getty Images Scott Morrison

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is scrapping a key Coalition policy to raise the retirement age to 70 and will keep it at 67.

Morrison announced the policy shift on Nine’s Today Show this morning saying the plan, introduced under Tony Abbott in 2013 as the government focused on budget repair, was no longer needed.

“Next week, cabinet will be ratifying a decision to reverse taking the pension – the retirement age – to 70. It will remain at 67,” Morrison said.

“I don’t think we need that measure any longer when it comes to raising the pension age, and that’s one of the things I’ll be changing pretty quickly.”

Morrison said he’d been talking to colleagues about the change and plans to have it ratified by Cabinet next week.

“The pension age going to 70 is gone,” he said.

The surprise announcement came in response to a question from a Today Show viewer who asked why the new PM “thought it was a good idea to have everyone working until they are 70?”

Morrison replied: “Well, I no longer think it is”, adding that he was going to make the announcement next week, but decided to do it now.

The government has struggled to get support for raising the retirement age in the Senate, as well as causing a backlash in the electorate.

#BREAKING: Scott Morrison has announced the Coalition will no longer be raising the pension age to 70. #9Today pic.twitter.com/eTn0BuEaeC — The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) September 4, 2018

The change comes nearly three years after Morrison, as treasurer, warned Australian workers they shouldn’t expect an age pension from the government when they retire, and that it’s a safety net only.

Just a year ago, the Coalition government was still pushing ahead with the policy, which was supposed to save the budget $3.6 billion in its first four years.

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