Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My comments will be brief. I know there are other speakers keen to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Lifting the Income Limit for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card) Bill 2022. Labor was very clear during the election: if you vote for us, there will be no broken promises and we won't waste a minute in government. That's what we're doing. We're getting on with the job. The coalition had nine years to do this and they didn't get around to doing it. We will get around to the job of fixing the failures of the previous government.

At the election Labor committed to increasing the income limits for the Commonwealth seniors health card. This will replace the annual indexation which would otherwise occur on 20 September. It's no surprise that the cost of living is the red-hot issue in the community, and this will help with cost-of-living pressures for older Australians, including those in my electorate. This bill increases the annual income limits for Commonwealth seniors health card holders from $57,761 to $90,000 for singles and from $92,416 to $144,000 for couples. That's a substantial increase in eligibility. There will be an extra 44,000 newly-eligible CSHC holders assisted.

We're very pleased to have brought this forward to the parliament. We are very pleased that we are in government and able to get this done. It wasn't done by the previous government. It is being done by the Albanese Labor government. We are going to be helping 44,000 older Australians. They will become eligible for the benefits of the Commonwealth seniors health card. We're very pleased to get this done. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context