Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Will the minister update the House on responses to the government’s Economic Security Strategy payments?

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question. She certainly has a very real concern for and gives great support to, particularly, the pensioners in her electorate. Last night was a very good night for two million families and four million pensioners, carers, people with a disability and veterans. The Economic Security Strategy bill passed the parliament. From 8 December, in just a very short period of time, single pensioners will receive $1,400 each, pensioner couples will receive $2,100 and families will receive $1,000 for each eligible child. Of course, it is the case that these Australians who have been doing it tough are counting on these payments.

I have had some recent calls and letters from pensioners, who have said the following things to me. One, an age pensioner, has written, ‘I can now meet all of my bills and have Christmas dinner for my family for the first time in years.’ A disability pensioner rang me the other day in tears. He can now fly to see his son for Christmas and buy him a decent Christmas present. These pensioners and so many other Australians have been doing it tough and we know that they deserve a helping hand. Unfortunately, it seems that not everybody on the other side of the House agrees with this, even though they promised that there would not be any quibbling about these important payments. Despite promising to support them, some of them just cannot manage it. We know that, as usual, Australians should judge the Leader of the Opposition by what he does, not by what he says. But I think he should go and have a look at what the Leader of the National Party in the Senate had to say about this legislation last night. This is what Senator Joyce said in the Senate:

… I think I have been consistent—and I speak on behalf of some of my colleagues—in saying that I do not agree with this package.

Which colleagues? Which colleagues is he speaking about? Who else on that side of the House does not want these payments to go to pensioners, carers and families? You would have thought that at this point we would have had either the Leader of the Opposition jumping up to speak or even maybe the member for Warringah. He, of course, might have jumped up to defend families and pensioners.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Turnbull interjecting

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course, the Leader of the Opposition says that he has not had any opportunity to make any public statement anywhere in the media—

Government Members:

Government members—The Press Club!

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That’s right! He was at the Press Club yesterday. He obviously has no idea what his coalition colleagues are doing in the Senate. We understand that there are a few other colleagues who do not agree with these payments. So it is some leadership that he is showing—getting out there and demonstrating what on earth it is that the opposition actually thinks about these payments.

They do have a shadow minister over there who, you might have thought, might have defended the interests of pensioners and families. Unfortunately, the member for Warringah thinks that the job he has got is beneath him. When the latest Leader of the Opposition was actually elected by those opposite, the member for Warringah went out into the media and said that he wanted a change of portfolio because he did not think that this portfolio was the main game. That is what he is saying to pensioners and to families. Last night, in yet another insult to Australian families and pensioners, the member for Warringah told Laurie Oakes on Channel 9 that he had ‘nothing better to do than turn up for media interviews’. Nothing better to do! He cannot get out there and talk to pensioners and families and stand up for their interests. The member for Warringah has no interest in developing policy, as the Acting Prime Minister—

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, a point of order on relevance: how can a personal attack on the member for Warringah be relevant to the question that was asked?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The question was to do with the responses to the economic security payments. The minister will relate her remarks to the question.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I say this to the member for Warringah: if you are not prepared to stand up for the interests of pensioners and families maybe it is time to get another job.