Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am trying to understand why we cannot get the most up-to-date figures—and maybe it is because I do not understand the details of data collection enough. You have the figures from June 2008. That is nine months ago and it is also prior to the global financial crisis really biting. So it is very hard to judge this legislation, because we know that the figures we are using—of around 22,000 affected—are wrong. We know that that is way too high, but we actually do not know how many people are now going to be affected. That relates to our next amendment, which provides that, for some people, eligibility for the seniors card could potentially be grandfathered.

My concern is why we cannot get the most up-to-date figures. As you have just pointed out, Centrelink are actively working with older Australians—which I think is great—to make sure that they are getting access to benefits if they meet the thresholds. I wonder: don’t you keep records of that? Don’t you keep records of when people are coming onto the pension and how they are meeting the criteria? Is it just because the data is not processed till the end of the year—which I also find a bit difficult to understand?