Justine Elliot (Richmond, 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 strengthening our social security system and delivering cost-of-living relief for Australians, including social security payment recipients, and are there any risks to this?

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

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Oh, laugh away! You did it. You voted against plenty of these measures! We know that, when they were last in government, despite promising not to touch the aged pension more than nine times, they actually tried to raise the pension age to 70 when they had the opportunity to do that. Those opposite have not changed. They have not learned. They're the same old Liberals focused on themselves while we're focused on making life a little bit easier for Australians.