Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Sturt ought to study consideration in detail in Hansard for the last 10 years. If he did so, he would find that government members routinely spoke for five minutes during consideration in detail on matters of concern to them and to their electorates. That is exactly what I am doing.

I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have acknowledged that pensioners are struggling. I welcome the fact that the government is carrying out a review of the adequacy of pension payments and that in March the Prime Minister indicated that the government would be examining ways to deliver increased financial security to pensioners. I look forward to that review and, more importantly, to action to address the present financial plight of pensioners. The Prime Minister has told the Victorian Labor state conference that Treasury secretary Ken Henry is preparing a report on how we can confront the long-term interrelated challenges of our tax, welfare and retirement income systems, which will include a review of age pensions. I believe it is important that the attention of the Prime Minister is drawn to the situation facing pensioners, which is precisely why I am raising these issues. I am disappointed to see members opposite have no interest in this issue, which is one of the issues confronting senior citizens in our community, who are, in my view, entitled to support and who are, in my view, struggling to make ends meet as a result of increasing prices of electricity, gas, pharmaceuticals, food, petrol—you name it. Prices have been increasing and therefore senior citizens are entitled to support.

The petition which they have presented to me is being presented to the parliament next Monday. I think that it is good that people are pursuing these issues through petitions and other processes. I hope that they continue to do that—that people in my electorate and indeed in other electorates continue to sign these petitions and to make their feelings in this matter clear. It is regrettable that their circumstances were not helped by the previous government, which fitted them up with a GST which has had very adverse effects on their capacity and their spending power. That is very regrettable. (Time expired)

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