Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the parliamentary break I had a number of sessions with senior citizens and pensioners in my electorate of Charlton. Of course, the adequacy of the pension is something very much on their minds, with rising costs of living—particularly for that basket of goods that pensioners depend upon, perhaps disproportionately to the rest of the population—including the cost of pharmaceuticals. It is an especially important issue in my electorate because there is a very large proportion—indeed, a higher than average proportion—of residents aged 65 years and over. In Charlton, there are approximately 14,500 recipients of the aged pension, 24,400 holders of a pensioner concession card and 1,700 Commonwealth seniors card holders. That is a very large group of my constituents and one that is extremely vulnerable to rising costs of living. Also, from the government’s point of view and from my personal point of view as a local member, they are a group that deserve every possible level of support from government, something that has been acknowledged by the Prime Minister.

To help with the rising costs of living, the government has already announced a number of initiatives to help pensioners and older Australians, and, of course, the government is looking to do whatever else it can. A number of measures were included in the budget and, as is known, these included an increase in the utilities allowance from $107.20 to $500 per year, an increase in the seniors concession allowance from $218 to $500 per year, an increase in the telephone allowance from $88 to $132 per year for those with an internet connection and a $500 bonus payment to eligible seniors, which included all aged pensioners.

These are some significant measures which have certainly been well received within the electorate. However, in the consultation that I have been having throughout the electorate over the last couple of months people have been quite forceful about the need for consideration of more. That is why the government has announced an investigation into measures to help strengthen the financial security of seniors, including a review of the aged pension. My colleague the member for Shortland, who is in the chamber, would be aware, as I am, that there are public hearings due tomorrow in Newcastle concerning this issue, and we have endeavoured to make sure that people are aware of that. But I am very pleased that the government has taken that action and we look forward to the findings of the report. It is going to be extremely important that we look for every way we can to support pensioners with any improvement in their circumstances to deal with the rising costs of living and also look at ways to address other measures such as the cost of housing. To that extent, we were very pleased to hold, in conjunction with the Minister for Housing, a very large forum in my electorate to discuss affordable housing, and we will be reporting on what there is left to do.