Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am proud to speak on this motion about National Seniors Week and honouring the contribution of seniors. I will start by making a simple point about the contribution from the member for Gilmore: we on this side support the pension; those on the other side would rather give tax cuts to multinational corporations than support the pension, and that is demonstrated by their motions in this parliament. I will get onto broken promises later. First, I want to honour the contribution of seniors in Australia and in my area in particular. In the seat of Charlton 22,000 people are over the age of 65. That is 17.1 per cent of the population, which ranks us 30th highest in the country. I am proud of the fact that so many people over the age of 65 choose to live in the seat of Charlton.

I see this when I run my regular seniors expos, which are really well attended. The most interesting thing about these seniors expos is the volunteerism demonstrated by the seniors themselves. They organise and staff the stalls that are a key part of the expo—people from the University of the Third Age, from Men's Sheds, from the great institution of the Toronto Croquet Club, from the Lions Club, from Alzheimer's Australia, from the Westlakes Seniors Computer Club and from Meals on Wheels. All of these great stalls are staffed by people aged over 65 and predominantly provide services to seniors. That is a great achievement and it is something I am intensely proud of in my area. I am also intensely proud that the member for Shortland moved this motion. She has a similar population in her electorate. The members for Richmond and Newcastle will be speaking later, and they are all very proud of seniors and support them greatly.

The truth is that, while those on this side support seniors greatly, the government does not. The government, through broken promises and untruths and fictions, is attacking seniors as we speak. The member for Gilmore said the 'no changes to pensions' promise is not a broken promise because the changes do not come in until 2017. Well, first off, she is factually incorrect. We have already seen a massive cut in concession payments from the federal government—a $1.4 billion cut in concession cuts to pensioners has already started.

In some states we have seen a short-term commitment to bridge the gap, but I have very serious reservations about whether that will continue. We have seen cuts to the pensioner education supplement. We have seen the abolition of the seniors supplement. We have seen cuts to the deeming threshold. We have seen an increase to the pension age. Most of these—the ones that pertain to pensioners—are a direct broken promise of the infamous statement by Mr Abbott, made before the last election, that there would be no cut to the pension. And the greatest crime of all is the change in pension indexation. A change that, according to the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, will result in a $23 billion cut to pension payments in this country. Let me repeat that: a $23 billion cut. Those on the other side can say that it is a change in the indexation. They can edge around it, but if it is booked into the budget over the future years as a $23 billion cut, then it is a cut. To put this in context, if this change in indexation had occurred four years ago this would have resulted in the pension now being $1,500 lower than it is today—a significant impact on pensioners.

But pensioners, and seniors more broadly, are not just concerned about the impact on themselves. They are concerned about the impact on their kids and their grandkids. I have many seniors coming up to me and talking about the higher education reforms, which they are afraid will stop their grandkids going to uni. They are worried about the $30 billion cuts to schools, which mean that their grandkids and great grandkids cannot get the best start in life. They are worried about the $50 billion cuts to hospitals, which are already having an impact in my area, where we have the John Hunter Hospital. It is of great concern to seniors, not just when they present themselves to the emergency ward but when their kids do. Seniors are very concerned about jobs. They are concerned about the ability of their families—their kids and grandkids—to find well-paying jobs in the economy.

I stand up here proudly, like everyone on this side, honouring the contribution of seniors. I honour their volunteerism. I honour their decades of contribution to Australian society. I call on the government, I call on those opposite, to stop just talking and to match their rhetoric with real action and reverse their changes to the pension; reverse their changes to the seniors supplement; reverse their changes to higher education; reverse their changes to Newstart; and reverse their $80 billion cuts to schools and education. That is the best way they can honour the seniors of this country.

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