Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise today to support the motion by the member for Parramatta. I start by saying how proud I am to be a member of this federal Labor government, which has delivered the most comprehensive and unprecedented increase in the age pension in its 100-year history. We are very proud of this achievement by the federal Labor government.

Since 2009, this government has delivered increases to the maximum pension rate of about $154 per fortnight for singles and about $156 per fortnight for couples combined. Why did we deliver these historic increases? We realised that after nearly 12 long years of neglect by the Howard coalition government action had to be taken. The federal Labor government understood that our pensioners, the people who built this country, needed greater support to make ends meet. We listened to their concerns and addressed them by increasing the pension. It cannot be overstated that these increases are an unprecedented and unrivalled reform that could only have been delivered, like all the great social reforms in this country, by a strong federal Labor government.

The reforms have continued. As part of our household assistance package, pensioners have received a lump sum payment over the past few weeks of $250 for those who are single and $380 for couples. Pensioners will also get a well-deserved permanent boost to their regular payments in March next year. In total, single pensioners are receiving an extra $338 a year and couples are receiving an extra $510 a year combined.

What is the coalition's response to all of that? Of course they are opposed to it. Like everything else, they are opposed to all of these increases and opposed to helping pensioners. What is worse, if we look at the very scary prospect of the coalition getting into government federally, we see that they will take away these increases. In my electorate, that will affect nearly 30,000 pensioners, who will have their pensions ripped away from them by the federal Liberal and National parties if they get into government. Certainly many locals in my area know that is the reality if they get into government.

We see the same degree of callousness from the New South Wales state Liberal-National government. Recently, we had the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, telling pensioners in public housing that he is going to take away their payment by incorporating this well-deserved increase into the calculation of their public housing rents. It is absolutely appalling. It is not enough that in the federal parliament we have the Leader of the Opposition voting against historic increases; now we have his state Liberal-National colleagues ripping this money straight out of pensioners' hands already. In fact, the New South Wales state Minister for Family and Community Services, Pru Goward, in a media release dated 14 June 2012 stated:

… from March 2013 regular fortnightly carbon tax payments will be taken into account for the purposes of calculating heavily subsidised social housing rents.

The New South Wales state government knows full well that the federal government has delivered this increase as a separate pension supplement so that it would not be included when the state government calculated public housing rents. What does this action really mean for pensioners? It means that a maximum rate single pensioner will now pay an extra $84.50 a year in rent. That really is an appalling imposition on people in public housing.

In my area, the local National Party MP, the member for Tweed, Geoff Provest, blatantly denies what he and his government are doing. First of all, he does not listen to the plight of pensioners, who are doing it tough, but then he contradicts his own government. In a statement to the local press on 20 June, Mr Provest completely contradicted Minister Goward and denied that supplementary pension payments would be included in the calculation of public housing rents by stating:

… the lump sum carbon tax compensation payments have not been counted as income for rent purposes.

This is completely untrue and a total lie, but that is what he does—contradicts his government.

It gets worse when we look at the history of a local state member like Geoff Provest and at some of the comments that he made in the New South Wales state parliament prior to his government being elected. On 22 June 2010 in the New South Wales state parliament, the member for Tweed, Geoff Provest, condemned the then state government for doing exactly the same thing and increasing public housing rents. He stated:

There is simply no way the Commonwealth will tolerate a clawback of that one-off pension increase by the states for pensioners in public housing—

which is exactly what they have done. To quote further, and this really is appalling:

Aged pensioners need our support. They do not need people from both sides of this House trying to take their last cent and trying to erode their quality of life.

That is it exactly what he and his government are doing. It shows what a total hypocrite he is that they are now trying to take that money away from people in public housing.

The New South Wales Liberal-National government should hang their heads in shame for what they are doing. It is a dirty, grubby backflip that is impacting on many pensioners in my electorate. We are seeing very harsh actions at the state level, and we would see these actions also at a federal level if the Liberal-National coalition were ever to form federal government. In contrast to all that, the federal Labor government delivered historic increases to pensions. (Time expired)

See this speech in context