Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I recognise the agreement of those on the other side of the chamber. It is something that we all understand as members but, unfortunately, it was the previous government that did not change the rules. That is something that I am bringing forward tonight—my understanding of where we need to go. The concerns raised in the media two weeks ago and my petition of four weeks ago were essentially saying that we need to make some decisions very quickly about how we are going to resolve this. It does not mean that we are looking at one-off payments, the $30 increase. I think we all understand that economically and financially it is just not the right way to go. We must understand what we need to do to better service pensions.

We have announced the Harmer review, the Henry review and ways of looking at the overall taxation system and how payments can be made not only to pensioners but to other people in need in our society. That review has to go ahead. I know that the new Leader of the Opposition is talking about his own review. Understandably, he wants to be able to come up with some definitive statements as well about what we need to do for pensioners, but the reality is, as a government, we have committed to making some change. We have committed to understanding more about the overall pension and taxation system. No decisions can be made until we really understand the money that comes in and the money that needs to go out in payments. The constituent I mentioned previously came to me and said he was willing to work, to come back into the workforce, but the incentives were not there. We do need to recognise that. We need to understand how much we might be seen to be advantaging certain people who can work over people who are taking benefit in other forms of payments who may be able to do some work or none at all. It is simply about understanding our overall position.

In summary, I commend the member for Tangney for bringing this to our attention. I think there probably needs to be a lot more thought go into what this motion is all about. What we are saying on this side of the House is: stand by our review, and please support us in it. The review will certainly tell us a lot about the system of taxation, the excise and all the other payments that come into our funds and how we then redistribute those. Pensions are certainly right at the core of our support for those people in our community.

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