Senate debates

Monday, 17 November 2014

Bills

Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 6) Bill 2014; Second Reading

10:19 am

Photo of Sue LinesSue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I to rise to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 6) Bill 2014 before us this morning. While I indicate Labor's support for these measures, I also will talk more broadly about what is happening right across our social security system. Labor has always supported families, pensioners and young people and Labor will continue to support those groups in our society. Not only that, we will also fight, and fight really hard, against any negative impacts on families, on pensioners and on young people.

To that end, recently in the Perth electorate of Swan I held a forum and asked pensioners to come along to talk about the impact of the Abbott government's harsh, cruel budget and its direct attack on pensioners, particularly on those in the electorate of Swan, in which I live. I had hundreds and hundreds of emails from pensioners very, very concerned about the Abbott government's attack on them. As Australians who have well and truly paid their way—whether they have fought in wars for Australia, worked their whole lives, contributed to our tax system, raised their families, bought their homes—they are under attack from the Abbott government. The Abbott government can say over and over again that there are no cuts to pensions, but pensioners know better. They are not stupid. These are senior Australians. They have seen it all before.

Interestingly, when I held the forum in Swan I had well over 100 pensioners from the electorate come along, and they were well and truly aware that the switch to CPI for measuring their pension as an indication of what increases they get means a reduction in their incomes. And no matter how the Abbott government tries to dress it up, the pensioners in the electorate of Swan, and I suggest pensioners right across this country, are not fooled. The government can say, 'There's an increase in your pension,' for as long as it likes, but pensioners in Australia know that this new way of indexing actually means a cut.

Interestingly, at the same time as I held this meeting at Swan, the Liberal member for Swan was out at the Juniper village of senior citizens in Rowethorpe, where he again made the claim that pensions will continue to increase. He also made the claim that somehow the Abbott government was funding roads in Swan—roads funded by Labor. Just changing the name to the Perth Freight Link from the Gateway project does not fool anyone. People know where that funding is coming from, the same way that the pensioners the Liberal member spoke to out at Rowethorpe would not have been fooled.

Using CPI actually means a reduction in the pension. It means a reduction, and economist after economist has made that point plainly. The Australian Council of Social Service, the peak welfare body in this country, has also made the claim that pensioners will be worse off over a few years, to the tune of $80 a week. That is a cut in the pension. The government can dress it up and dress it up, but I can assure this Senate that over 100 pensioners who came to the event in Swan, who were invited to come along, were not under any illusion that somehow the government was doing them a favour.

Interestingly, the government knows that those harsh measures will not get through this Senate, which is why it has chosen today to present another bill with a range of measures that Labor does support. But, like the Australian community, we are not going to be fooled into supporting measures which actually cut people's pensions, particularly for the Australians who have worked their whole lives, who have contributed to society, who should not at the age of 70 have to start worrying about how they balance their budgets.

Of course, that is not the only hit on pensioners that we are seeing in this harsh, cruel Abbott government budget. The pensioners will also be hit if the GP tax gets through. No matter how you dress it up by saying, 'You will only pay for X number of visits,' the fact remains that when pensioners front to the doctor they will have an increased cost. It is not rocket science: we know that as we age we use the healthcare system more. We are more likely to need referrals. We are more likely to need prescriptions. We are more likely to need specialist services. So that cost for pensioners goes on and on and on as they continue to pay and pay and pay over time, on the reduced weekly earnings which the Abbott government is still seeking to introduce into this parliament—a disgraceful attack on senior Australians if there ever was one.

In Western Australia the other attack on pensioners, again instigated by the Abbott government, has been the reductions in the local government costs. Their licensing costs will no longer be funded by the federal government, and the state government has indicated it is not going to foot the bill either. So Western Australian pensioners, particularly those pensioners in the Swan electorate, in which I live, are absolutely being slammed by both levels of government, and they know that. They know that the Barnett Liberal government is hitting them and they also know that the Abbott government is hitting them. You can dress it up and you can say Labor is out there whipping pensioners up. No, we are not. These are senior Australians who can read and understand very clearly what is on the table and they are not fooled. I am sure that the pensioners out at Rowethorpe who the Liberal member for Swan spoke to were not fooled either.

This is a harsh attack. What we also know is, despite the government now having to make this absolutely humiliating backdown, having to separate out its bills and bring them back, that these attacks on pensioners are still there. They are still in the back pocket of the government. The government is still looking at who in the parliament might support them. Can they win over any of the independents to try and get them to support these measures? Labor has made it absolutely crystal clear we will not support the sorts of harsh measures that the Abbott government wants to introduce to Australia's pensioners. We will not do that. We will continue the fight against these harsh measures right up until the next election.

The other hypocrisy that goes with this harsh, cruel budget is that we had the Prime Minister in the lead-up to the election commit over and over again and promise no cuts to pensions, no cuts. 'You can vote liberal and we'll assure you that we won't make cuts.' Australian pensioners are now reeling and waiting for that axe to fall on their pensions, as the Abbott government will cut their pensions. No matter how they dress it up, using CPI is a cut.

It is a hugely embarrassing backdown for the government and in my view it destroys any credibility that the Prime Minister may have had, if indeed he had any credibility, particularly in relation to broken promises and Mr Hockey's whole budget strategy. We saw over the weekend—and I am sure it will be discussed in this place—how embarrassing it was at the G20 to have the Prime Minister of this country complaining to world leaders about his internal budget problems. For goodness sake!

Again, particularly talking about the GP tax which will hit pensioners if it gets through this place, it was interesting that he bemoaned to world leaders that he cannot get this 'groundbreaking', according to him, tax through the parliament, but he never mentioned it in the lead-up to the election. He never ever mentioned—not once, not at any time—to the Australian public that there was a GP tax on the horizon. Indeed, when it first started to circulate in the community he still denied it, but nevertheless here it is. He has just shown that the Abbott government cannot be trusted on any election commitments it makes to anybody, and Australian pensioners—particularly those in the seat of Swan—certainly know that.

This is a hugely embarrassing backdown for the government and again flies in the face of this view of a budget emergency. Labor was not cute about this; we said up-front what we would support. We were very clear which measures we would support. Equally, we were very clear about which measures we would not support. We know we have been very clear about it. In fact, the government has accused us of scaremongering, but it is not scaremongering; we are out there telling the truth to the Australian community. But what we do know is that Mr Abbott still wants to cut the pension. He has made it clear. We have heard Mr Andrews say that as well.

But where is this so-called budget emergency? We agreed to these changes four months ago, so the government could have had them through four months ago. But no, its ideological bent is to try to destroy the Australian way of life, not only to try to Americanise our universities but to try at the same time to Americanise our social security system. That is not what a fair go Australian community wants, and it has been loud and clear in its condemnation of the Abbott government's proposals.

Australians have always wanted and advocate for a fair go society, and that means that our taxes are used to support those who need a helping hand. It is not the sort of society where, according to the Abbott government, people simply look after themselves. That is not the society the Australian community wants. It is not our fair go society, and yet that is at the heart of what the Abbott government is trying to change with this Americanisation and this Tea Party philosophy that we are now seeing coming loud and clear from the Abbott government. It is at the heart of all of its harsh, cruel measures. There is a very strong message there, and that is that you have to look after yourself; otherwise, you will fall by the wayside because you are a leaner, not a lifter, and you do not have a place in our society.

I can tell you the pensioners in Swan absolutely reject that notion and I know the voters across Australia also reject that notion. It is about a fair go. We are a society that looks after and accepts our responsibility as a community to see that we pay our taxes and that taxes are distributed to those who need a helping hand, not the Tea Party, right-wing ideological agenda the Abbott government is pushing that somehow those who need support will have to find it somewhere else.

The other harsh, cruel measure that is part of why Labor has rejected these bills is what the Abbott government wants to do to young unemployed people. It is still not very clear. We tried at Senate estimates to get a lot of information out of the government in relation to penalties, but apparently that is still being figured out. But this view is that somehow a young person who finds themselves unemployed is to be blamed for that. The definition of 'young' is now being stretched right up to 30. If you are a young person, the Abbott government is saying to you: if you find yourself unemployed, look in the mirror because the fault is yours. We are going to punish you by saying that for at least six months—in fact, we think it will be more than that—you will go without any unemployment payments.

What happens to that young person? If they have family, they fall back onto family, presumably, but what happens if they are a low-income family? What happens if they are part of a pensioner family? That will create very real hardship for those families. And what of young people who do not have those strong family links? What happens to them? They will well and truly fall through the cracks. We know that and the government knows that too, because the other thing the government has done is increase emergency relief money. It knows its harsh, cruel measure will impact young people, who will not get any support at all from the government for six months and will have to go knocking on the doors of community based organisations and ask for handouts for food, help with electricity bills and so on.

But what we also know is that, because Australians on low incomes are finding it tough, the call on that emergency relief money has gone through the roof. We had the Salvation Army, who help the most marginalised in our community, tell us last week at a Senate estimates hearing in Perth that they had never seen so many people needing help. That is before these harsh, cruel budget measures the Abbott government is proposing even see the light of day. I was alarmed to hear the Salvation Army, who we all rely on to look after the most needy in our community, making that statement. They told us at the Senate inquiry they had run out of food.

We also know in Western Australia a couple of weeks ago Foodbank released its report, and there are thousands and thousands of children in Perth who go hungry currently because they do not have enough food to hand out to those vulnerable families, families that are under attack by the harsh, cruel Abbott government budget measures—the sorts of measures it has now taken out of this bill but still has in its back pocket to bring it at some other time when it has managed to hoodwink some of the Independents and others in this chamber to get them to agree.

Australians will not forget. They know who is at the heart of the harshness that they are feeling. We saw the backdoor methods a couple of weeks ago on the fuel tax, so we know the Abbott government is desperate. It is embarrassed that it put up its harsh, cruel budget and cannot get anyone to support it, so it will do whatever it takes to get its measures through.

We saw the disgraceful deal it did six weeks ago with the Palmer United Party when it froze superannuation benefits for working Australians, which has got to be one of the dumbest moves I have moves I have seen in a very long time. If we are to make retirement savings of livable, if we are to get that retirement income to a level where people can sustain themselves and do not need to call on pension benefits, that to me seems to be a very good economic outcome. But instead of that the Abbott government, in a sneaky, last-minute deal with the Palmer United Party, who some health claim they support workers, froze superannuation payments. What a disgraceful move. We will see real decline in retirement incomes through superannuation. And if the government's sneaky attempts to change the way that the pension is increased via the CPI, which will mean a reduction, pensioners will be much worse off. It will be a loss of retirement incomes because of the freezing of super and this pension CPI indexing measure.

We know that the Prime Minister is not listening to Australians, because there is not one credible expert and very few Australians agree. Even the big the end of town has questioned the government on its move to take income off young people for six months. Yet, this right-wing, Tea Party agenda just keeps churning through the Abbott government. Australians are not fooled by this and Labor senators in this place and indeed the Labor Party will continue to be vocal on these harsh budget cuts right up until the next election. We are watching very carefully. We will scrutinise every attempt the government makes to try to cut the benefits of pensioners, families and young people under 30. We will watch and we will be vocal about it. We stand for a good society, not an Americanisation attempt—a right-wing, Tea Party agenda that the Abbott government is trying to push through. We will defend the Australian community.

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