Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Energy Assistance Payment and Pensioner Concession Card) Bill 2017 that this government has introduced to this place. We will support the amendment moved by the member for Jagajaga. This is a bill introduced at the same time that we see inequality at a 75-year high, when wage growth has stalled to an all-time low and when energy costs continue to skyrocket. A matter of minutes ago, the minister came into this place to strip away money from seniors and pensioners who have worked hard their whole lives only to be treated like dirt by this government. We just heard the minister come in here and want to be congratulated for giving a one-off payment but taking away a lifetime payment to many pensioners and seniors in our community.

Let's not be fooled. While Labor will be supporting the one-off energy assistance payment to pensioners, the government has today confirmed and introduced by law that they want to cut the energy supplement. That is a permanent payment which is worth much more to pensioners. Put simply, what we have just witnessed a matter of minutes ago is the government giving on one hand and taking much, much more on the other hand. This is not a win for pensioners.

On this side of the House, Labor recognises that many Australians and seniors are doing it tough. Time and time again, what we have seen is the government making it harder for pensioners to make ends meet and harder for working Australians. Whether it be cutting penalty rates, hiking university fees, the Medicare freeze or a whole range of projects and programs in the budget that do not help pensioners, what we are seeing today is a minor commitment to pensioners but a major cut to thousands of pensioners across Australia. We know that the one-off payment in the legislation that we are debating today will mean a payment of $75 to pensioners, but we will also see as a result of the legislation introduced into this place before I spoke a cut of $375 each and every year to pensioners as part of axing the energy assistance payment.

I mentioned before that I know many seniors and pensioners are doing it tough across the country, but this is in particular for those who rely on assistance from the government to help pay for their skyrocketing energy bills. An analysis by the University of Melbourne's Australian-German Climate and Energy College earlier this year found that the average wholesale electricity price doubled to $134 a megawatt hour last summer, compared with $65 to $67 in the two summers during 2013 and 2014. Yet the government then sees fit to cut $375 to pensioners while energy costs continue to skyrocket.

I have to ask: are those opposite in the same communities that we all walk around in? The same shopping centres that we visit? Or in the same pubs and clubs—all of those areas? Go into one of those clubs in my electorate—the mighty Blue Fin Fishing Club or the Goodna Services Club—and said to a group of pensioners who might be having a nice lunch together, perhaps after having a social activity, and say: 'Do you know what? We're going to give you a $75 payment but on the same day that we do that we're going to introduce legislation to take $375 from you.' I can say that that would not go down very well in my community, and in every single electorate in Australia that would be the same.

So what is it with this government? Wage growth is at an all-time low; their answer is to cut wages. Inequality is at an all-time high; their answer is to cut support. And energy costs continue to rise and their answer is to cut the energy assistance payments. Really, all you can do is to shake your head and say, 'Why won't this government actually hear what is going on in Australia?'

Let's be clear about what this government is proposing with this legislation. There is a one-off payment which is merely a shallow attempt to distract Australians from the fact that this Liberal government wants to cut the energy supplement. Australian pensioners deserve much better than this. The Prime Minister and those opposite will not get away with pulling the wool over the eyes of Australians. Offering a one-off energy assistance payment of $75 to single pensioners while attempting to take $365 a year from single pensioners by removing the energy supplement to new pensioners is not good government; it is deceitful government.

A one-off $75 payment is not the same as $365 assistance every year to help pensioners keep up with increasing energy costs: $75 does not equal $365. The Prime Minister has shown us time and time again that he does not 'get' fairness. I have said it in this place before and in the other place—in the Federation Chamber—that we hear the government talk a lot about fairness. We hear them put that out in materials and in advertising, but we know that they do not believe in fairness. That was the Liberal Party spending $200,000 to get a focus group to tell them that they needed to use the word fairness in their budget!

Only a few weeks ago I was able to host the shadow minister for families and social services and the member for Jagajaga at a seniors forum, where this exact bill was being discussed by members of the community—the issues of cost of living, of energy cost and of people finding it really tough to make ends meet. We met at the Jindalee Bowls Club with Centenary Suburbs residents. Over 200 residents were out in force to make it very clear to me as their federal member and to the shadow minister that they found the rising costs of energy, when every dollar counts, to be a huge impact. Cuts like those that the minister just introduced, whilst we are seeing a once-off payment, simply will not make up that shortfall. The Jindalee Bowls Club is also home to Centenary Meals on Wheels. They do a great job serving pensioners and seniors. We know that the funding for Meals on Wheels is also under question and that there is a lot of pressure from service providers who are worried about the government's commitment.

So, looking at this package and the amendment the shadow minister has moved, and going through those items one by one, in condemning the government's cuts to Australian pensioners we need to look back only a very short time. In that horrific budget in 2014 the government tried to cut pension indexation and leave pensioners $80 a week poorer over 10 years. We remember when the Liberals tried to reset the deeming rate thresholds, changes that would have negatively impacted half a million part pensioners. And who could forget the change to the assets test earlier this year, when the goalposts were shifted on hundreds of thousands of pensioners who carefully planned for their retirement? Almost 100,000 retirees lost their pension, and many more had their payments cut.

This bill, at the same time as trying to pull the wool over the eyes of older Australians, also tries to clean up the mess left by the former Treasurer, Mr Hockey. When the changes to the assets test were introduced, the Treasurer promised that those who lost their pension as a result of the change would be able to keep their concession card. He said:

… anyone who currently has a Pensioner Concession Card will continue to receive a concession card that provides the same benefits …

That was false. That simply did not happen. Instead, former pensioners were issued with Health Care Cards and Commonwealth Senior Health Care Cards, which did not provide the same benefits. For example, without a pensioner concession card, former pensioners were not able to access vital government funded hearing services, and different concessions were applied from state to state. The government did not even bother talking to the states and territories about maintaining these concessions. I know that in my own community pensioner groups rallied, came together to make very clear their position on this breach of faith, this lack of trust that the government thought was the right way to go. We know that fundamentally the Australian community rejected it. Who can forget that famous night in 2014 when the then Treasurer in this government was putting the axe to pensioners, to those most vulnerable? He cranked up the music in his office and said it was the best night of his life. Well, it was the worst night of the lives of pensioners and seniors in our community. Either the former Treasurer forgot to include the maintenance of eligibility for those concessions in his budget or he just did not understand the difference between the two types of cards. Regardless, it goes to show that this government does not care about low-income Australians. Nor does this government care about middle-income Australians. We know from their actions and their policies that their priority is looking after the top end of town and those in big business. On top of all of this, if the government had its way, a retiree who dreamed of having an overseas trip would have their pension cut after just six weeks of travel.

The Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Social Services have all said that the only reason these cuts were not in the budget is not that they had a change of heart, not that they listened to the Australian community, not because they would go out to seniors forums like the ones I hosted with shadow minister Jenny Macklin a couple of weeks ago and the shadow age minister last Friday. They did not do any of that. They did not go out and consult. They did not actually listen. They said: 'We couldn't get them through. We couldn't pass these cuts—not because we didn't believe in them and not because we don't think they're great. We couldn't pass them, so we junked them.' They still believe in them. If they had the numbers, they would pass them. If they could, they would lower the living standards of those on low incomes; they would lower the payments to those who rely on them the most.

This is not an ideological shift; this is just a sheer pragmatic shift by a government more worried about their own skin than worried about those who rely on these payments. These cuts are not gone. The ministers in this place, the ministers at the table and the backbenchers in this chamber still want to deliver them. No-one has publicly gone out and said: 'We got it wrong. We shouldn't have gone so hard. We shouldn't have gone so fast.' I have seen all of this tragedy play out over the past couple of years in my community. But pensioners, seniors and others in the community rallied together and made sure that those sorts of cuts were not delivered.

We also know that one of those measures, delivered by then Treasurer Hockey and the former Prime Minister, the member for Warringah, was to increase the pension age to 70. This would mean that Australians would have to work longer than anybody else in the world. I know the government like to be congratulated and like to think this is a fair budget. They go out and say, 'This is being well received in the electorate.' I do not know what planet they are on. You only need to look at the messaging coming out of the community from the nonprofit sector. If they bothered to leave this place and go to the bowls clubs and the service organisations in my electorate and meet with pensioners and seniors groups, they would hear a completely different message, where people in our community are doing it tough and need support. That is what the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, does every day of the week, criss-crossing the country going to town hall meetings week in, week out, listening to Middle Australia, listening to regional Australia and ensuring that pensioners and seniors, particularly, get the fair go they deserve.

As I mentioned earlier regarding this bill and these changes, I was privileged to host the shadow minister for ageing, the member for Franklin, in my electorate last Friday. We visited two aged-care facilities and retirement locations in my electorate—a great new location in Springfield, and Sinnamon Village, a wonderful retirement village and nursing home facility at Jindalee. We heard from residents and staff about the enormous pressure and strains that those in aged care are under, particularly seniors who are relying on government support.

So, whilst this bill is welcome for a one-off hit, a one-off payment, it does not go far enough and it simply does not undo the damage that this government has done to seniors and aged people in our community. They deserve dignity, they deserve respect, but more importantly they deserve a government that is on their side. This government has proved time and time again that it is not on the side of senior Australians.

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