If you were both born after 1 January 1957 then you both have a qualifying age for the pension of 67 years.
This is unless they change the law in the future.
For your main question, do you have to return to Aus for a couple of years, on the face of it, i guess the answer is yes. You could return to Aus when you (the younger) are, say, 65, and then when you turn 67 (ie after 2 years of Australian residence) you both can apply for the pension ( stating your full intention of staying in Australia), get the pension, then after a discreet time, start making arrangements to move to Bali. You must not appear to be just going through the motions of being in Australia. An immediate request for portability of the pension as soon as you've been granted it, may raise alarm bells. So you would usually be expected to be ready with a reason why you now want approval for portability when only last month you told them you were staying in Australia.
If it sounds complicated, it is. For some reason they seem to dislike people taking their pensions overseas. I don't think other coutries are like that. You'd think we'd all be less of a burden on the Australian taxpayer, as we won't be using hospitals, roads,etc.
The reason i myself am going into it in a bit more detail, researching cases etc, is that i'm thinking of not completely moving to Bali until i am of pension age. I might just go over there and start leasing land, building, etc while taking steps that conform with the Australian regulations concerning "residence". For instance, stlll owning a house in Aus and returning to it frequently, stiil having most of my money here, filling in my boarding passes as a returning Australian resident, only renting for short periods in Bali, not long leases of a year, and of course my husband will probably still be more in Sydney than Bali because he is 5 years younger than me and has no real interest in retiring early. So that will be a big factor.
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If you were both born after 1 January 1957 then you both have a qualifying age for the pension of 67 years.
This is unless they change the law in the future.
For your main question, do you have to return to Aus for a couple of years, on the face of it, i guess the answer is yes. You could return to Aus when you (the younger) are, say, 65, and then when you turn 67 (ie after 2 years of Australian residence) you both can apply for the pension ( stating your full intention of staying in Australia), get the pension, then after a discreet time, start making arrangements to move to Bali. You must not appear to be just going through the motions of being in Australia. An immediate request for portability of the pension as soon as you've been granted it, may raise alarm bells. So you would usually be expected to be ready with a reason why you now want approval for portability when only last month you told them you were staying in Australia.
If it sounds complicated, it is. For some reason they seem to dislike people taking their pensions overseas. I don't think other coutries are like that. You'd think we'd all be less of a burden on the Australian taxpayer, as we won't be using hospitals, roads,etc.
The reason i myself am going into it in a bit more detail, researching cases etc, is that i'm thinking of not completely moving to Bali until i am of pension age. I might just go over there and start leasing land, building, etc while taking steps that conform with the Australian regulations concerning "residence". For instance, stlll owning a house in Aus and returning to it frequently, stiil having most of my money here, filling in my boarding passes as a returning Australian resident, only renting for short periods in Bali, not long leases of a year, and of course my husband will probably still be more in Sydney than Bali because he is 5 years younger than me and has no real interest in retiring early. So that will be a big factor.