Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks so much to the member for Richmond. It was wonderful to visit a great local service that provides emergency relief to her electorate when I was up her way just recently. I know that, like the member for Richmond, all of us believe that we want people to have jobs. We want them to have good, secure jobs. Since coming to government, we've seen the minimum wage go up $9,000. We've seen tax cuts for every taxpayer—more to come. But, when people can't work, of course they need a social security system that supports them, or, if they're aged pensioners, of course they deserve to retire with dignity.

That's why we're so proud on this side that, last Friday 20 March, more than five million social security recipients saw a boost to their payments—a $2.6 billion boost to their payments. In the member for Richmond's electorate, it was 25,480 aged pensioners who saw their pensions go up. We know that Australians are feeling the pinch, and these adjustments help keep up with cost-of-living changes. The changes that came into effect last Friday saw the full aged pension—now $5,500 more than when we came to government. They see jobseekers who've got $4,300 a year more since we came to government. Rent assistance has gone up; the maximum rate has gone up by about $1,900 a year since we came to government. And, for the first time in 30 years, we've seen an increase to the threshold for the small debt waiver, making sure that our system is fairer and better value for taxpayers. The waiver is now set at $250. So around 1.2 million small debts will not be collected this year. A lot of those debts actually cost more to collect than they return when they're collected.

This builds on cheaper medicines—the maximum cost for a script for pensioners is now $7.70; a bulk-billing boost; five per cent deposits for first home buyers; free TAFE; the 20 per cent cut to student debt. We know that those opposite, of course, would put all of that at risk. They love voting against cost-of-living help for ordinary Australians.

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