Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. How is the Albanese Labor government helping to ease cost-of-living pressures for Australians and tackle challenges in the Social Services portfolio?

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

I want to thank the member for Corangamite for her question and for being the wonderful local member she is. Of course, we are proud, on this side of the chamber, of the economic management that's seen the creation of more than 1.1 million jobs. We're proud of the fact that those on the minimum wage have seen that minimum wage increase by around $9,000 since we came to government. We're also proud of the fact that, when people can't work, we stand up for them and we help them out. That's particularly true for age pensioners.

That's why I'm so very pleased to say that, from 20 September this year, we'll see increases again, for more than five million social security recipients, in what they will see in their bank accounts each fortnight. That includes 2½ million age pensioners. Those people who are on the full rate of the age pension will be about $30 a fortnight better off because of those increases coming on 20 September. That means that someone on the full rate of the age pension is about $5,000 a year better off since we came to government. It's also true of people on JobSeeker. They are about $4,000 a year better off since we came to government. Rent assistance, as the housing minister continues to remind us, has also increased by about 45 per cent. If you're a single-rate age pensioner paying $550 a week rent, you're about $1,800 a year better off because of the increase to Commonwealth rent assistance on its own. That comes on top of all of the other cost-of-living measures—the cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, energy bill relief, cuts to student debt, free TAFE and, of course, the $43 billion Homes for Australia plan.

On 20 September, we'll also see another change for social security recipients, and that's a change to our approach on deeming. Some social security recipients with financial assets will see a change to their payments as a result of the unfreezing of deeming rates. During COVID, we on this side supported the Morrison government to freeze deeming rates. They were frozen by the Morrison government for two years and, on coming to government, we added another three years to that freeze of deeming rates. But, as other COVID measures have come to an end, so too is it time to gradually unfreeze deeming rates as well. That freeze has saved people affected by deeming about $1.8 billion over the period. But, as people do a few hours of paid work, it's not fair for them to be punished in comparison to people who receive income from their investments, so we will be unfreezing those deeming rates. (Time expired)