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

I rise to speak in relation to the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Energy Assistance Payment and Pensioner Concession Card) Bill 2017. In doing so, I say that we support the second reading amendment and we condemn those opposite for a history of neglect and indifference towards pensioners.

While so many people have been doing it tough and feeling the pressure, it is hard to argue that anyone in Australian society has been feeling it more than pensioners. I have spoken to many pensioners in the mobile offices I have been doing as I do the country show runs—the Ipswich show, Kilcoy show, Esk show, Marburg show; and I have Toogooloowah, Lowood and Rosewood to go. I have spoken to hundreds of people during those times. Pensioners tell me how hard they are doing it. They are anxious and concerned. Energy prices have gone up, inflation exceeds wage growth and they are doing it harder. It is hard to argue that we have not gone backwards in the last four or five years under this government, both nationally and in the household budgets of the country.

There are people who are being disappointed and let down by this government. I think pensioners are among those who have been let down by this government. A segment of our society who need to be venerated and thanked for the contribution they have made to our economy and society has been let down badly by a government which seems afflicted by a desire to inflict cuts on pensioners' household incomes.

We will support the measures in this bill. Why wouldn't we? It helps disability support pensioners; it helps aged pensioners; it helps those on parenting payment single, and veterans as well. Labor always wants to look after pensioners, so we will not for a minute let those opposite forget and let pensioners forget what the member for Warringah and the member for Wentworth have done under their governments in the last four years in relation to pensioners. We will not forget their repeated attempts to cut the pension by any means possible, whether it is a change in indexation, a change in the assets test or freezing payments for pensioners wanting to travel overseas. We will not forget that they are as eager as ever to ditch the energy supplement for some of the neediest Australians. We will not forget that they still, to this day, believe that Australians should be made to work until they are 70—longer than in any other country in the developed world. This government has time and time again shown that they are more than willing to make pensioners the very first to lose out whenever they need to save a few dollars; all at a time when they feel they can afford to give away $65.3 billion in taxpayers' money that was expected to be paid in years to come by big corporates in this country. So they can afford to give away that sort of income when they could have been funding schools and pensions better, could have been funding hospitals and infrastructure better. This government's priorities seem very much out of kilter with Australia's expectations and certainly the expectations of Australian pensioners. Australian pensioners know that this government and this Prime Minister cannot be trusted. I think their knowing that is afflicting this government, and you can tell by their tone and by the opinion polls.

If anyone at all still needs an example of how detached the government's claims of fairness are, that example is what they have delivered and what they have done with the energy assistance payment. It is proof to all of what they are doing. We will not oppose a one-off $75 payment to pensioners, or $62.50 to each individual of a couple. We will not object to that—every little bit helps those who are trying to put food on the table, pay for their electricity, and meet their car registration and utility payments. We will not begrudge them that, but that is not nearly enough to compensate for the $365 a year—not just a one-off payment; a year—cut this government wants to perpetrate and inflict upon Australian pensioners by getting ready rid of the energy supplement. Never forget that under the Howard government pensioners might have got a small supplement at budget time, but the age pension really was far too low—and not just the age pension; payments for those on disability support, the carers payment, veterans' service pensions and other pensions were far too low, and that is what the Harmer review said.

It came to pass that when we were in government, back on 20 September 2009, a government decided for the first time in many years to assist single pensioners and pensioner couples. Labor decided to assist pensioner couples, and singles, with a $32.49 a week single pension increase and a $10.14 a week increase for pensioner couples combined who were on the full rate. We did that because the Harmer review recommended that that was what should happen. Those opposite seem determined to cut pensions. We know they still want to cut the energy supplement for over 1.7 million Australians, pensioners included. Why do we know that? Because it is written in the budget. Those opposite seem during question time and on other occasions oblivious to what is actually written in the budget. For example, they seem to deny the $22 billion in the education cuts for primary and high schools in this country which are clearly stated in the government's own documentation. We know it is in the budget. Just last week the independent Parliamentary Budget Office confirmed during Senate estimates that getting rid of the energy supplement is still one of the government's yet to be legislated zombie cuts.

It is clear that the Prime Minister is giving with one warm hand but taking away, coldly, with the other. The energy supplement is relied upon by some of the most vulnerable Australians to cope with the sadly and tragically increasing energy costs we are seeing around the country. Getting rid of it represents over $1 billion in cuts to pensioners, Newstart recipients and other vulnerable Australians. Single pensioners will lose $365 a year, or $14.10 a fortnight. Couples will lose $550 a year, or $21.20 a fortnight. These are cuts locked into the budget—it is in black and white for all to see—which the government will push through as soon as it gets the chance. Labor will oppose these cuts. This might not sound like much to those opposite, who feel they can afford to give away $65.3 billion in corporate tax cuts, but for pensioners living in Ipswich and the Somerset region, struggling to get through the week, it will be a hard-felt hit to their financial capacity to meet their household needs.

The government seems to be trying to rob the pensioners of this payment at the same time as many advocacy services, including ACOSS, have written to the Prime Minister about the matter. ACOSS said in their letter:

A clear message from the reaction to the 2014 Budget and the 2016 Election was that the community expects budget measures to be fair and equitable. People are deeply concerned about growing inequality in Australia. It is therefore alarming that the Government is cutting social security payments to those on the lowest incomes by removing the Energy Supplement, including people struggling on Newstart, and at the same time proposing to cut taxes for those on higher incomes.

That includes giving millionaires a $16,400-a-year benefit by the removal of the deficit levy from 1 July. They are doing that at a time when the gross debt in this country is $493 billion. The deficit—which they promised in their first year and every year thereafter to eliminate with a surplus—is about 10 times bigger than they projected it would be this year. That is an abject failure of economic management and responsibility for those opposite.

Despite the hurt that getting rid of the energy supplement will do, the Prime Minister still has the arrogance to claim that what he is delivering is fair for all Australians and particularly for seniors. Fairness seems to be a word that has penetrated somehow the lexicon and nomenclature of those opposite in their speeches and everything they do, including their press releases. I think it is a desperate attempt by the government to try and distract pensioners from the government's consistent and repeated attacks on their income. But, if the Prime Minister thinks people will not notice the difference between this one-off payment and the ongoing, yearly substantial assistance that the energy supplement he proposes to cut will impact, he is kidding himself. The fact that he thinks he can get away with such a significant cut straight out of the pockets of seniors shows just how out of touch the Prime Minister and this government is.

Schedule 2 of the bill, which restores the pensioner concession card, is a much overdue backflip by the government. I smile because I find it extraordinary. Many of us were here when the member for North Sydney said this would not happen: 'Those on the pension concession card will continue to receive the concession card, the same benefits, such as subsidised utilities and transport'. We knew it was not true. It was not true for about 92,000 Australians, who attended our electorate offices and I dare say those opposite. They instead lost their usual benefits—concessions in terms of registration, utilities and a whole range of other concessions. They were stuck on the low-income healthcare card or the Commonwealth seniors health card. As a result they lost so many essential government funded hearing tests as well as other vital concessions. It varied from state to state, but I dare say pensioners contacted electorate offices all around the country. It was a shamble of a reform. The government got it wrong, and as a result of this they are backflipping in this budget.

As recently as last December, the Minister for Human Services was still trying to avoid taking any action; he was looking to shift the burden of fixing this government's mistakes back to the states, territories and local governments. But they saw the light, and a sort of Damascus-road-conversion experience was had in May 2017, and all of a sudden they decided to change it. I commend groups like National Seniors and others who have been keeping up the fight for years in relation to senseless change. Thanks to them—and those opposite can even thank us, because we have been campaigning on this issue for a while—thousands and thousands of pensioners, and many who have come into my electorate offices, are sick of being treated as second-class citizens. I am pleased the government has undertaken this change. It is about time and long overdue.

But this is not the first time the government tried something like this. Who can ever forget what this government did to 330,000 age pensioners who had their age pension entitlements cut—and about 100,000 of those lost their entitlements entirely? It was a $2.43 billion cut in income support for pensioners. This was as a result of a deal that the government did with those opposite in the corner over there—there is one of them, the member for Melbourne. The government attacked the Greens relentlessly and yet were quite happy to do deals in relation to a whole range of issues: the Malaysian solution, cutting incomes for pensioners, raising the debt ceiling. I could go on and on. There are so many other deals they were prepared to cut with the Greens, yet they criticised them mightily in relation to issues. Again, pensioners lost out entirely as a result of that.

We opposed those cuts to pensions. And that was part of the 92,000 people who lost the pension concession card as well. This is a government that does all kinds of things in relation to pensioners. The age pension change saw 236,000 people worse off by an average of $130 per fortnight or $3,380 per year—an extraordinary thing. There was $2.43 billion in income support ripped away from pensioners. In that context I really do not understand why the former Prime Minister, the member for Warringah, had the gall to get up before the 2013 election and promise no changes to pensions. That act of deception is something that pensioners will not forgive or forget in a hurry. Who could ever forget the 2014 budget, when they tried to change the indexation of the pension to bring it back down to CPI? We opposed that and managed to block it. Instead of the pension being indexed by the higher rate of PBLCI or a percentage of male total average weekly earnings, the government decided to use the CPI as the only means by which pensions could increase, which would have resulted in pensioners being $80 a week worse off within a decade. We fought and opposed that.

The government seem to be lacking in focus and lacking in their understanding of fairness to pensioners. They do not understand how they attempted to hurt pensioners through their absurd zombie cuts. I think the most stupid thing they have tried to do is to raise the retirement age, expecting labourers in the construction industry, nurses and police officers—a whole range of professions—to work to 70 years of age. I cannot believe this government wants to raise the pension age to 70.

We will never stand between low-income pensioners and extra assistance. That is why we will support this legislation. It is about time the government looked at their attitude to pensioners in this country.

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