Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Will the minister update the House on government support for carers and pensioners and on the response to these measures?

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for her question and for her very real concern for her pensioners and carers. She certainly understands, as the government does, that pensioners and carers are under significant financial pressure. Whether it is the bills they have to pay, whether it is the cost of petrol or groceries, we certainly understand that whether you are a pensioner or a carer it is hard to make ends meet. While we do understand that there is more that needs to be done in this area, the government is certainly making a start.

From today bonus payments to carers and pensioners are starting to be paid. Four-hundred and thirty thousand carers and 2.7 million senior Australians will receive more than $1.8 billion in bonuses from the Australian government. Pensioners will receive a $500 bonus; recipients of carer payment and certain veteran carer pensions will receive $1,000. Carer allowance recipients will also be paid $600 for every eligible care receiver, and where possible these cash deposits will be made directly into bank accounts. Bonus recipients can be reassured that they will not have to pay tax on these bonuses and that the bonuses do not count as income for social security purposes.

There is further good news this week for all those eligible seniors and carers who are going to be receiving the June quarter utilities allowance payment. They will be getting $125, their second instalment in the utilities allowance which, under this government, has gone up to $500 per year—a permanent increase. This is the first year that carers will be receiving the utilities allowance. This was an election commitment that we made and which we are now delivering on. The former government excluded carers from the utilities allowance. We do know that this is just the start and that more needs to be done. We also know that to get this job done properly we need to look at it comprehensively. That is why we have announced that the whole area of retirement income and support for carers will be part of the review of the tax and welfare system.

I am also asked about other responses to these issues, and I have to say I am still trying to get a handle on the opposition’s response to this issue. They do still seem to be all over the shop on the issue of pensions. We know, of course, that as far as the opposition leader is concerned he said not a word in his budget reply about pension levels. However, the day after this budget reply we had the shadow minister for ageing, the member for McPherson, out and about on the post-budget hustings telling anyone who would listen that the opposition would, in fact, be increasing the pension. On that same day we had the shadow Treasurer for the Liberal-National coalition intervening and stating very, very clearly that the opposition had a policy not to increase the pension. The shadow Treasurer, the member for Wentworth, actually said on Steve Price’s show on 16 May: ‘We have not got a policy to raise the base rate of the pension.’ So you would have to say that that was pretty crystal clear—not much wriggle room.

So I was very surprised to read in the Age today under the headline ‘Nats in pension controversy’:

The coalition is again mired in conflict over the age pension, with the Nationals candidate in the Gippsland by-election defying his Coalition leaders.

Darren Chester called for a $30 increase in the age pension at a candidates’ debate yesterday.

Yesterday he called for that when he knew full well that the shadow Treasurer for the Liberal and National coalition has said they have no policy whatsoever to increase the base rate of the pension. This really is taking this opposition leader’s well-known policy flexibility to a higher level of excess. They have a policy, according to the member for McPherson. They do not have a policy, according to the shadow Treasurer. They do have a policy, according to the National Party candidate down in Gippsland. But, of course, once again we know that the shadow Treasurer is overriding all of that. It really is just getting beyond the pale with the Nationals’ candidate playing very, very fast and loose with the truth, trying to say he has got a policy when he knows that he cannot deliver it. Unlike the opposition, this government is serious. We are delivering on the bonus payments. We are delivering the increase in the utilities allowance because we know how hard it is for seniors and carers to make ends meet.