Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

That's just me; I am a generous person. This government is all about saving the Prime Minister's job and trying to keep people like Senator Sinodinos at bay. But the Australian community are the ones who are left wanting. Australia's pensioners do not trust this government. They do not trust them. We will wait and see what the detail is in this budget, but my theory is that cuts to the pension have not been shelved; they have just been put in the bottom drawer, because this budget is all about saving Tony's job.

Cuts of $1.3 billion from pensioners' concessions—concessions which have helped to pay their rates, transport costs, electricity costs and water bills—have been a big blow. The government has said that the states should really cover those costs while, at the same time, they are cutting the funding to the state governments—as part of their grand plan to put the pressure on the states to increase the GST. That is what it is all about.

But the Australian community are much smarter than that. They are onto this government. They do not trust Tony Abbott, they do not trust Malcolm Turnbull—