Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure this afternoon to rise and speak on the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Economic Security Strategy) Bill 2008 and related bills. As many other members have said and as the commentariat is saying, we are certainly living through difficult times. The global financial crisis is placing increasing pressure on budgets already stretched by the rising cost of living. I know we are all in this House concerned about the impact that that is having on individuals and families in our various communities. This is especially true of a number of groups that the Economic Security Strategy will give welcome assistance to, such as age pensioners, disability support pensioners, carers and veterans’ service pensioners, just to name a few.

The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Economic Security Strategy) Bill is a key component of the government’s Economic Security Strategy to strengthen the Australian economy in the face of the global financial crisis. The Australian government is determined to take strong, decisive action on this issue. One way it is responding is by providing immediate financial support for pensioners and their families. The government’s Economic Security Strategy will deliver relief to over 5.2 million pensioners, carers and families who will receive these one-off payments. This package will provide for payments of $1,400 for people in receipt of various pensions, including the single and couple age pension and the single and couple disability pension. This payment will also include self-funded retirees who are in receipt of the Commonwealth seniors health card.

For the first time, lump sum payments will also be extended to recipients of the disability support pension. Our government acknowledges that they are doing it just as tough as other pensioners and people in our community who need this sort of assistance. Importantly, for carers there will be a payment of $1,000 for each person who is cared for. If the allowance is shared between two or more people, the Economic Security Strategy payment will be similarly shared. Where receipt of one payment of carer allowance depends on the person providing care for two care receivers, the payment will also be $1,000.

Many families will also benefit from the strategy payments. For each child who attracts a family tax benefit payment part A—(Quorum formed) As I was saying, for each child who attracts a family tax benefit payment part A on 14 October 2008, the government will make a payment of $1,000 to that family. Also, a payment will be made for each dependent child whose family receives youth allowance, Abstudy, or living allowance or education allowance under the Veterans’ Children Education Scheme or the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act Education and Training Scheme.

Now, in my own electorate of Canberra, the number of people who will benefit are as follows: age pension partnered, 5½ thousand; age pension single, nearly 4½ thousand; carer allowance coupled, over 1,500; carer allowance single, over 600; carer payment coupled, 180; carer payment single, 164; Commonwealth Seniors Health Card partnered, 1,856; Commonwealth Seniors Health Card single, 751; DSP partnered, 1,789; DSP single, 2,587; and family tax benefit part A, 9,223. In other words, a lot of people, let alone the many in my electorate, are going to benefit from this strategy from the government.

The assistance is very, very timely. The payments will be delivered over the fortnight starting 8 December—if in fact, as the opposition has indicated, this bill is passed in a timely fashion, allowing for the processes of this place and Centrelink to happen in time. As has been said previously, many people are under pressure because of the global economic crisis. Whatever people use this payment for, I know that it is going to be welcome relief to many families. Importantly, it will help to kick start the cash economy that needs to happen. A lot of these pensioners really do live on very tight budgets, from week to week or payment to payment, and I know that they are going to use this money in very useful ways for themselves and for their families and it is going to make a big difference to their households.

This $4.8 billion package for pensioners builds on the $7.5 billion provided in the first budget. It brings the total new spending on pensioners since the election to $12.3 billion. The Economic Security Strategy package is only the start of the government’s reform of the pension system. This relief is really a down payment on the future long-term pension reform that this government is undertaking. We have previously acknowledged the need for pension reform and we are committed to it. However, we also realise that people need urgent assistance.

That is why the government’s Economic Security Strategy has been warmly welcomed by a number of diverse groups, including the National Seniors Association, Carers Australia, the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association, the Fair Go for Pensioners Coalition, National Disability Services and many others. For example, the Fair Go for Pensioners Coalition said it was welcome news that builds confidence and security among pensioners and seniors. Carers Australia have said that they are very pleased to see that the government has listened and is now taking some real, immediate action.

But where do the opposition stand on this package? We have just heard the Leader of the Opposition indicate their support. On 14 October, the day the package was announced, the Leader of the Opposition was saying that they were not going to argue or quibble with the government’s proposal. The next day he was saying, ‘We would have done it differently.’ It appears that the Leader of the Opposition has a bit of trouble holding the one position for longer than one day. On 16 October, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition appeared on Lateline stating:

We said in principle we would, of course support such a package.

She said ‘in principle’. All that we have heard from them since is the argument they had been running before this announcement about the need for pension reform in this country. The opposition had proposed immediate increases in pension payments for one or two groups or—I think at the very end of the argument—three groups within the pension community, excluding everybody else.

We said at the time that reform of the pension system is desperately needed and we are going to do a proper and full inquiry into that reform. There are many complications and many anomalies. It is a very complicated system and you cannot just turn around and feed $30 a week into one pension payment but not consider others. So we said that we would do a proper reform of the process. We have undertaken that. That reform will be known in the new year. We are looking forward to seeing the processes of that reform and the outcome of that particular inquiry. In the meantime, the economic crisis that has hit us, the rest of the Western world and in fact the whole world has meant that we needed to look at a more immediate solution. So, while that reform process is underway, we are making these payments to these people in the hope and the knowledge that they will help. (Quorum formed)

It is very evident that the opposition are determined that the 26,000-plus people in my electorate do not hear the full story. They will, because I will continue. The point that I want to make is that in the longer term, after proper consideration, there is a need for pension reform. We have a very good process underway. We are having an inquiry that will review the whole process of pension payments in this country. What we were not prepared to do and will not do is throw a few dollars as an increase to a pensioner for two or three groups of pensioners and ignore all of the others. In my electorate that would have meant a very large number of people would have got nothing; they would have had no increase in their living standard at all.

Because of the economic crisis and the decisive, quick and certain action of this government, these payments will go out to a very long list of categories of people who are receiving Centrelink payments. As I have indicated, in my electorate alone we are looking at around 26,000 or so people who are going to benefit in the short term from those lump sum payments. In the longer term, they will also benefit, hopefully, by the outcome of the Henry review into the pension system in this country.

I am very proud to be part of a government that has taken a decisive piece of action in proposing to give these payments to those in our community who definitely need this assistance the most and need it immediately. I am, like other members on this side of the House, looking forward to decisive action on the part of the opposition. They should cause no delay at all in the process of these bills. We can get this through, get royal assent and start the process quickly so that these payments—whether they are used for Christmas, to get washing machines fixed or whatever other reason—go to these people quickly.

I wish to remind the recipients of these payments that there is no need for them to make claim. The payments will not count as income for social security, family assistance or veterans’ entitlements purposes. They will be tax free. The payments will be made to people who received one of a range of social security and veterans’ entitlements qualifying payments on 14 October 2008.

I will repeat what has already been said by the minister in this House: those pensioners and seniors not actually receiving a qualifying payment on 14 October 2008 will still get this payment if they had claimed the qualifying payment by that date and later have their qualifying payment backdated to cover that date. Similar backdating arrangements will apply for qualifying cardholders. It is very important that people out there understand how simple we are attempting to make this process for them and how quickly we want them to get this relief. In the longer term, we look forward to the outcome of the full pension review that this government has undertaken. I thank the House.

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