Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

That was a very interesting contribution, because I think someone listening to that contribution wouldn't really understand what we were debating here today, what we're taking note of here today. We're taking note of the question from Senator Farrell to Minister Ruston around her comments on the radio interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell, where she described the age pension as generous. Not once in Senator Paterson's contribution did we hear him trying to support her or defend her in any way. Because everyone in this chamber knows it is indefensible. Her comments were completely out of touch with what is going on in Australia and what is happening to people on the aged pension. Senator Ruston, in her response to Senator Farrell, refused to apologise. Let's get that on the record: she refused to apologise. You have to ask yourself why it is so hard to apologise for comments that were so obviously wrong, so obviously offensive, to hundreds of thousands of aged pensioners in Australia. Why is it so hard to apologise? Senator Ruston refused to apologise. She did accept that pensioners were doing it tough.

Now, the Treasurer, Mr Frydenberg—just like Senator Paterson did in his contribution—refused to endorse Senator Ruston's characterisation of the pension. We are talking about $66 a day. That's what we're talking about. That's the amount of money that age pensioners receive that Senator Ruston calls 'generous'. The Treasurer refused to endorse the comment. In fact, he said—and it's worth repeating, as it was part of Senator Farrell's question to Senator Ruston:

"I understand pensioners have challenging times, a number of pensioners do it really, really tough," …

That was in response to being asked about whether he supported Senator Ruston's comments about the pension. Of course he, using one of Senator Cormann's phrases, wibble-wobbled around that and refused to support those comments. And you can't blame him. You can't blame him for refusing to endorse those comments, because they were wrong and they were out of touch. We're talking about $66 a day.

We also have enough reports, evidence and research, some of which have been funded by the minister's own department, on poverty and people living in poverty on the age pension. Some of that research has been funded by the minister's own department. Maybe the problem is that this is a government that has had six or seven ministers in this area since they came to government six years ago. What does that say? What does that say to Australians? It says that this government does not have an interest in the community services area. It has had six ministers, including the Prime Minister. The government should be ashamed. The minister should be ashamed. (Time expired)