Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate my support for the Greens amendment and I endorse the comments of Senator Siewert. We have not had community consultation. We have not had a national conversation about this quite radical shift in going from 65 to 67. I also wonder to what extent these changes will deliver the savings that they are meant to deliver. During the estimates process, I put some questions on notice about how many of the people affected by this change from 65 and 67 are manual labourers. There have been various media reports about these changes, including a vox pop undertaken by the ABC where they spoke to some workers—they may have been dock workers—who said that they did not think they were going to last beyond 65 and that by the age of 60 they were pretty well physically shot as a result of the hard manual labour. So these are things that need to be considered.

I wonder to what extent the projected savings from 65 to 67 will come to fruition given that many in that group between 65 to 67 may seek disability pensions and other forms of assistance because they cannot continue to do the hard physical work that they have been doing, particularly in those occupations. So I do have reservations about the extent of the savings in relation to this. Of course, along with all others in this chamber, I welcome the government’s legislation. The pension increases are overdue and it is a welcome boost for pensioners. But I wonder whether there ought to have been further consultation in relation to this change from 65 to 67 and the projected savings factor in the number of people that simply will not be physically able to continue working from 65 to 67 and will have to seek alternative benefits.