Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Shortland, who has a tremendous commitment to the seniors, not just in her electorate but nationally. She is one of the fiercest advocates for seniors in this place. This gives me an opportunity in this particular debate, as shadow minister for Indigenous affairs and shadow minister for ageing, to mention a couple of events I went to recently.

I was very pleased to attend an event at Cherbourg, the Ny-Ku Byun residential aged care facility, to have some discussions with local people in South-East Queensland in the Aboriginal settlement up there about the challenges of consumer directed care, residential aged care and the failure to take up the aged-care packages amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

It also gave me the opportunity last Thursday to be in Glebe with the member for Sydney, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, to speak to local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about the challenges they particularly face, and Indigenous seniors face, in an urban setting. I thank those people who were there, particularly Annecto, Kinchela Boys Home and Babana Aboriginal Men's Group, such adamant advocates for their area.

I also had the privilege of attending an area nearby the member for Shortland's electorate. I went to Shoal Bay, where I joined Labor's New South Wales candidate for Port Stephens, Kate Washington, for a seniors forum at Harbourside Haven, which features retirement living and nursing care. The residents there made it very clear. They are not happy with Liberal governments, both New South Wales and federal.

While this week we celebrate Seniors Week in New South Wales, seniors are not happy about cuts to the pension. The Abbott government's changes to indexation of the age pension will result in a real loss for pensioners over time. It is a $23 billion cut over time to the pension. Pensioners will be $80 a week worse off within 10 years. If in the last few years a pensioner had been on this form of indexation, they would be $1,500 worse off. If people do not believe this is a cut then look at the budget papers. In the May 2014 budget papers, under 'savings', hundreds of millions of dollars were cut and saved there by the Abbott government. This change is unfair, and pensioners, whether they are in Sydney, Cherbourg or Shoal Bay, know it.

The previous Labor government addressed this issue and changed the indexation rate to make sure it was 27.7 per cent of MTAWE, male total average weekly earnings, the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index or CPI—whichever was the higher. What this government is proposing to do is get rid of those other two and do it on the basis of the CPI, which, generally speaking, is much lower. It would not be a savings if it were not a cut. The budget papers reveal the platitudes and nonsense said by members opposite about this issue, because seniors are getting cuts—that is what is happening.

The Abbott government have form in this area. They have made cuts in a whole range of areas of ageing with respect to the workforce supplement, the dementia supplement and the payroll tax supplement. These are all supplements which help residential aged care providers and those people who provide home care residential services for Australian seniors. These areas were cut in the budget—before the budget and subsequent to the budget. The government is not tackling the issues which Australian seniors need help with, whether it is dementia or in a whole range of other areas.

New South Wales seniors should know how unfair that government is as well. Seniors are ready to vote. They are sick of Liberal government cuts to pensions, aged care, health and public transport. They know about it. In fact, Mike Baird's Smart and Skilled training policy really could be called 'dumb and dumber', because it puts jobs in the aged care sector at risk. A community college in Port Stephens is no longer funded to provide aged care and early childcare training—two areas of skills shortage in the local area. So what is happening there in the aged care sector? What is happening for seniors in New South Wales? They have got a great option. They have got an option to vote Labor at the next election, because there is unfairness whether it is in Port Stephens or in Sydney. It is unfair to seniors to lose these young people who are training and living in their community. What New South Wales needs now is a Labor government with heart and vision. What they need now is a government which will invest in aged care—a government which will make a difference for seniors. (Time expired)

See this speech in context