Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

The member for McPherson is very keen to hear about the recommendations from the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs inquiry, so I will just refresh her on that. Its recommendation was:

… the Government review the suitability of the base pension levels through economic analyses of amounts required to achieve at least a modest standard of living for retired Australians, with particular consideration given to the adequacy of the percentage rate for single older people receiving the age pension compared to couples.

On budget night, the government acted on this bipartisan recommendation by instituting the Henry review of tax and welfare. We understand the urgency of this and that is why we acted. The government has asked Dr Jeff Harmer to complete this matter as part of the Henry review and report back to the government by no later than February next year. The pensions review is well underway with over 600 submissions.

During the Senate inquiry, and since that time, we have received many, many calls from different seniors groups, disability groups and carers groups to improve pensions and payments in those submissions. This range of views shows that the pension system is very complex, and that is why we have to analyse it properly. There are many different positions. Many different proposals are being put forward, and we have to look at them. This confirms that the responsible course of action was to undertake a comprehensive investigation into the pension, not just provide some quick political fix that excludes two million pensioners.

The government is being very responsible and the opposition are playing really cheap politics. The opposition’s private member’s bill was just a very cruel political stunt, an act that pitted pensioner against pensioner. The Liberals and Nationals had 12 years to fix the pension system. When they had the power to act the opposition did absolutely nothing, and now all they can do is play cheap politics with a really important issue for millions of Australians. In fact, when they had a chance to do something last year when they were in government, what did the Howard cabinet do? They voted against raising the base rate of the single pension. We know the opposition are playing cheap politics here, because their proposal leaves behind two million pensioners.

Not only was the bill that the opposition put forward unconstitutional but so many of its policies were also fundamentally flawed. Because of their absolute haste to cobble together this quick fix, the bill they put forward was riddled with flaws. It had not been properly thought out, just cobbled together. The opposition’s proposed increase was not even indexed, and its value eroded over time—yet another mean and tricky Liberal and National parties scheme. It also created serious inequities in the pension system, which was very unfair. They have not been able to explain these inequities or why they have come about. They have just put it all together and so many people totally missed out. They know that people have missed out, they know that there are inequities, they know that it is not fair—but they do not care. They do not care at all that they were misleading Australian pensioners in their rush to score these quick political points.

Unlike the opposition, the government is determined to get it right for the long term. We have made a down payment on reform with some immediate assistance for pensioners. That is why we increased the utilities allowance to $514 a year and decided to pay the instalments every three months. This fortnight, all pensioners—age pensioners, carers, disability support pensioners, widows, wives and veterans—will receive their quarterly utilities allowance instalment of $128 to help with their bills. As well, all single pensioners will this week get the regular pension indexation increase of $15.30. So we have taken immediate action. We have increased and extended the utilities allowance. We have increased the telephone allowance to $138 for those with a home internet connection. We have also paid cash bonuses—$500 to seniors, $1,000 to those on carer payment and $600 in carer allowance—because we know that those pensioners are doing it tough.

But, when it comes to reforming the pension system, we know that it needs a lot more than the quick fix that the Liberal and National parties have put forward. That is why we are having the comprehensive review and why we have had over 600 submissions in relation to it. All these views will be taken into consideration because the government is absolutely focused on reform and on getting it right for the long term, not on a political quick fix.

Earlier, the member for McPherson referred to my seat of Richmond, and I would like to raise the issue of the number of people there who will miss out under the Liberal-National Party scheme. Indeed, there are 17,772 pensioners in my electorate of Richmond who will miss out under the Liberal-National Party scheme. They have been totally forgotten. That is a lot of people. Let us have a look at the electorate of the member for McPherson. How many people in her seat would miss out? It would be 12,652. What is she going to tell those people?

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