Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

As well as being the member for McPherson, I am also privileged to be the shadow minister for ageing. It is in both of these roles that I shall speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 and cognate bills. When I listened to speakers from the other side—from the new Rudd government—particularly in this budget debate, I wondered if we were actually talking about the same Australia, as their take on the Howard government’s legacy is so far removed from reality. The Howard government has, and did have, a proven track record in delivering security, opportunity and prosperity for all Australians. On this side of the House, we are very proud of our record. We are exceedingly proud of our legacy, but the Rudd government has a new mandate: one of insecurity and lost opportunities.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett, was right when he said that once Labor won office it would change everything. He was not wrong. Already the Rudd government has demonstrated it is not fit to govern. The stability of the past nearly 12 years has been replaced by a sense of instability, insecurity and isolation, particularly if you are not a working family. The growing sense of unease about the Rudd government’s performance is warranted because it is doing a thorough job of wrecking the economy and isolating Australians. Forget about social inclusion: we are now seeing the social exclusion of many sections of Australia’s communities.

The electorate of McPherson has a large population of older Australians. Healthy ageing has always been one of my priorities. The Australia of yesterday always had seniors at the forefront of policy. The Australia of today, under a Rudd government, completely ignores and discounts them. This is of tremendous concern, as seniors need to feel valued and important as part of ageing with dignity and maintaining their health and wellbeing. They need to be included as productive members of all our local communities right throughout Australia.

My mother is in her eighties, so I can see firsthand how policies introduced by this government affect her. The government’s neglect of seniors irritates her and takes away her peace of mind, as it does that of many seniors who live in my electorate. Older Australians are feeling disenfranchised and ignored by the government. The government could not have put it any more bluntly that seniors do not matter. The first sign that something was amiss with the Rudd government’s priorities was when it would not commit to the pensioners and carers bonus just a few weeks ago. This caused a great deal of anxiety in the community. This sense of insecurity was compounded when aged care was not an agenda item at the 2020 Summit and only one per cent of delegates to that summit were aged 75-plus. This rejection of older Australians is glaring. They are a significant group of people who make up over 13 per cent of the Australian population and, over the next 40 years, that is projected to rise to 25 per cent. During this time, growth in the labour market will remain stagnant. With increasing life expectancies, we will have the potential to slow economic growth and to reduce all Australians’ standard of living.

Two days before the budget was handed down, the government backflipped on a cut to aged-care funding because of prolonged pressure brought by aged-care associations, providers, families and me. To consider a cut to aged-care funding is nothing short of lunacy as the aged-care industry is under extreme financial pressure, with no guarantee of increases in CAP funding beyond 2008-09. Forty per cent of providers are operating at a loss. Places are undersubscribed in Western Australia and Tasmania, and beds are closing down.

In the news this week we have seen the collapse of two aged-care facilities. Bridgewater aged-care service, which has 107 residents, was put into administration owing thousands of dollars in entitlements to its staff. In addition, 33 residents at Alton Court have to find new homes as the Wesley Mission aged-care facility has been forced to close its doors. I ask members to put themselves in the shoes of these elderly residents. The forced move will be upsetting for many who have been forced from what has been their home for many years. Unless urgent structural reform is undertaken in the sector, more and more aged-care facilities will fail. How does the Rudd government deal with this train wreck about to happen in the industry? It does it with a backflip to a cut to aged-care funding two days before the budget.

Just on the off-chance that seniors, singles and carers have not got the message, budget night confirmed the status quo: if you are not a working family, you just do not count. In fact, you do not even warrant more than a passing mention under this new government. There is no doubt that Mr Rudd has failed to grasp the issues. His inability to make decisions is doing a great deal of damage to seniors in this country. The Rudd government’s budget has squibbed on its inflation rhetoric. Decisions that the government is taking are having an inflationary effect on the economy and jeopardising our future prosperity and wellbeing.

Food prices are soaring and the world is in great danger of running out of food, more so than at any other point in history, with the situation set to worsen. The World Bank has estimated that food prices have risen by 83 per cent in three years. This is placing basic food staples out of the reach of more and more Australian people, particularly our elderly. So what is the Rudd government’s policy response to the food challenges Australia is facing? Wait for it: in the budget it cut funding of $63.4 million to Australia’s national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world, the CSIRO. The CSIRO’s JM Rendel laboratory at Rockhampton is closing because of the funding cut. This is a facility that provides vital research for Queensland’s $3 billion beef industry through its work in genetics, nutrition and the interaction of livestock with the environment. At a time when the world is running out of food, the Rudd government has decided to cut funding to the very organisation whose science helps to secure Australia’s food future.

Petrol prices, as we have heard all week, are also having a huge impact on senior Australians. Rather than implementing policy that does not add to petrol prices, the Rudd government has done exactly the opposite. I wonder how many people in this place have heard from pensioners in their own electorates about the pensioner who can only budget $5 or $10 a week for the fuel pump.

I must say it was a breath of fresh air to have one of the Rudd government’s ministers making some intelligent comments about fuel prices and Fuelwatch. The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, correctly said that Fuelwatch would seriously damage the government’s economic and regulatory reform credentials and would put upward pressure on fuel prices, as the Western Australian experience has found it to be anticompetitive.

The Rudd government has said that Fuelwatch would put motorists back in charge of their fuel costs. I call on the Rudd government to stop playing the Australian public for fools because it will not be long before they see through all the empty promises and cheap talk. My pensioners and your pensioners would also be feeling the pinch on the petrol prices. The only winners with Fuelwatch will be the big multinationals, Coles and Woolworths. The 4c a litre that people save on petrol prices by shopping at Coles and Woolworths are paid back through higher grocery prices.

Another very important issue is health. The Rudd government has admitted that lifting the Medicare levy surcharge threshold will cause hundreds of thousands of taxpayers to drop out of the private system. My question is: whatever possesses a government to introduce a policy that will put pressure on the public health system, see private health insurance premiums skyrocket and price older Australians out of the market? If that is not irresponsible and inept, I ask what is. With an ageing society, where the demand for services and technologically advanced treatments mean more and more strain will be placed on the health budget, the Rudd government proposes policies that will jeopardise the entire health system.

Another example of poor policy through this budget is the Commonwealth seniors health card. The Commonwealth seniors health card provided a range of benefits to people who did not qualify for the age pension but had an adjusted taxable income of less than $50,000 per year for singles or $80,000 per year for couples. The Rudd government’s income test will now include income from superannuation, income streams from a taxed source and income that is salary sacrificed to superannuation in the income assessment. The main purpose of the Commonwealth seniors health card is to assist self-funded retirees with certain living costs by providing access to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme prescription items, certain Medicare services at a cheaper rate and concessional travel on Great Southern Railway services. Mr Rudd said he would keep the cost of living down, but this change will hit hard for the many self-funded retirees in my electorate. The Rudd government, in my view, is alienating self-funded retirees by limiting their access to this practical, cost-saving program.

We have also heard a lot about the Regional Partnerships program, a highly successful program under the coalition. We have seen Minister Albanese today backflip on withdrawing funding for many projects in the Regional Partnerships program. I am delighted that he has. I am hopeful that a couple of those Regional Partnerships projects in my own electorate will now be funded. One of them was a program for the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, a sanctuary that is held under the National Trust of Queensland and where we had plans to build an animal welfare hospital. We had applied for a $100,000 grant, and I am hopeful, from what Minister Albanese has said today, that we will see funding for that sanctuary animal hospital.

I also hope that we will see the funding for the skateboard park in Tweed Heads. I have spoken briefly to Minister Elliot today and I am buoyed by her comments. It is a very important community project that will assist the youth of that area.

We have heard a lot about an education revolution. The so-called education revolution is about a computer for senior high school students, with nothing in the budget for junior high school or, indeed, primary school students. Much has been said of the Rudd government’s education revolution, but schools on the southern Gold Coast, in my electorate, will be worse off under Labor’s decision to scrap the successful Investing in Our Schools Program. Labor has abolished the $1.2 billion program to pay for its election promises to put computers and trades centres into secondary schools.

In McPherson, the Investing in Our Schools Program saw around $1.6 million provided to approximately 30 schools for projects they decided were a priority. Up to $150,000 was available to each school to fund everything from repairs of run-down toilets and classrooms to upgrades of playgrounds and IT equipment. The program was a huge success in my electorate and, with school children, P&Cs and the local community enthusiastically getting behind the projects, tangible results have been achieved that advance the education and wellbeing of all young students on the southern Gold Coast. School communities in my electorate have relied on this funding to make up for state government shortfalls.

Australian taxpayers deserve to know why the Rudd government has halted the tender process for an Australian technical college on the Gold Coast when the land has already been purchased for $3.6 million and a contract signed between the department and the ATC to commence building. Three hundred students are already enrolled in training and approximately half of those students have secured apprenticeships which will take them straight into the workforce and help alleviate the skills shortage. The department has assured the Robina ATC that the funding agreement does stand. If that is the case, why won’t they allow the ATC to get on with the business of skilling Australia and allow them to tender for that very important building?

The Rudd government have announced they will make an early start on their election commitments by providing $22.5 million for the upgrade of the Nerang South Interchange on the Pacific Motorway. This is part of the $455 million funding that Mark Vaile announced when he visited the Gold Coast on 31 August last year and that the Labor Party copied with a me-too announcement on the same day.

The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has stated that the government will continue to implement its land transport infrastructure election commitments from 2009-10 to 2013-14, with the timing and specific funding arrangements to be negotiated with the states and territories. How can local residents be satisfied that the Rudd government will come through with the rest of the $465 million worth of crucial funding if it is not listed in the budget papers or forward estimates?

On 13 November 2007, Martin Ferguson said the Rudd Labor government would deliver a $210 million six-pack of Pacific Motorway interchange upgrades as part of its plan to battle worsening congestion on the Gold Coast. This election promise pledged $27.5 million for the Nerang South Interchange. Interestingly, the ‘Budget 2008-09’ media statement announces only $22.5 million for the Nerang South Interchange, with no mention of the rest of the $450 million election commitment.

The Small Business Field Officer Program is another highly successful program that has been scrapped by the new Rudd government. McPherson has six active chambers of commerce and more than 14½ thousand small businesses, and there are more than 51,000 small businesses throughout the Gold Coast. To cut this funding is certainly short-sighted. It is vital funding for small business. I say to the Rudd government: go back and have a look at what you have done in cutting that funding to small business.

Solar power is another area whose funding really leaves people breathless, with the government taking away funding for solar hot water system rebates. The Prime Minister has said in the past that we need to boost renewable energies in general. Solar energy is the most greenhouse-friendly energy available on the planet and therefore we need to take some practical steps to make it possible for as many families as possible to invest in it. But imposing a means test on people who want to access funding for solar panels is another very short-sighted measure in this year’s budget.

I would like to put on record some comments about this budget and how it has really affected all Australians. We have heard of and know about so many of the successful programs that each and every one of us, when we were in government, delivered to communities and to the people of Australia. More and more, we are seeing that these programs have been cut, and this is affecting Australians on a day-to-day basis. I had a family contact me today about the means testing of the baby bonus. They plan to have a child, which is due in late January next year. They will now miss out on the baby bonus because of the implementation of the means test from 1 January next year. People need to plan their lives but their plans are being shattered and their dreams taken away from them because of decisions made by this government.

In many ways this new government is marginalising people in communities throughout Australia. I have a particular interest in the elderly both through my shadow ministry portfolio and because of the demographics of my electorate, which has more than 25,000 seniors aged over 65. These people are doing it tough. They received very little attention in the budget papers. Their pensions are not keeping up with the cost-of-living pressures that they are feeling. The price of petrol is having an extreme impact on them, and grocery prices continue to rise. We heard before the last federal election that if elected this government would do something about putting downward pressure on grocery prices and petrol prices. These are two things that are severely affecting older Australians, particularly in my community.

I think it really is time that we stopped to think about how we can help these senior people, who have given so much to their country. These people have built this country and they have been the backbone of this country. They have worked hard and, in many cases, they have saved for their retirement. But many of them need a lot more help than they are getting, and they certainly need some recognition from the government about how tough they are doing it out there in voter land. In six short months the government have lost contact with what is going on. They are out of touch with Australia in general, they are out of touch with families in Australia and certainly a lot of the policies they have introduced through this budget are having an extreme effect on the living conditions of all Australians.

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