House debates Questions without Notice
Pensions and Benefits
Tanya Plibersek Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition
2:39 pm
My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister claims that his National Energy Guarantee will lower power prices by $150 by the 2020s by removing uncertainty. But the Prime Minister's cutting the energy supplement, which will cost a single pensioner $365 a year—a cut which his own backbench, including the member for Dawson, have told him to reverse. Isn't the only certainty for pensioners that they'll always be worse off under this Prime Minister?
Malcolm Turnbull Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
The answer is no. The Australian government, my government, supports pensioners and provides them with the support that they deserve. We are not, as Labor is proposing to do, stealing their savings. Let's not forget that the Labor Party, the honourable member's party, wants to go after the savings of pensioners and self-funded retirees. They do. There used to be a bipartisan agreement that people on low incomes were entitled to get the cash benefit of those franking credits—and that was Labor's policy. Labor took it to an election, in fact. It was passed through this parliament by Peter Costello, with bipartisan support. Now the Labor Party wants to go after it. Who is going to pay? The people that will pay will be self-funded retirees. They think they will be getting $5 billion a year—
Amanda Rishworth Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs
Talk about the pensioners!
Malcolm Turnbull Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
And pensioners, yes. Pensioners that come on now will be getting it as well.
Chris Bowen McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer
You're wrong.
Tanya Plibersek Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition
You're wrong.
Malcolm Turnbull Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
You're misleading the House. Labor are going after the savings of older Australians in a shameful cash grab, and they should be appalled at the injustice of this assault on older Australians' savings.