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

They are generally anxious. They enjoyed strong economic management and they experienced strong economic growth. Under the previous government, older Australians had a feeling of wellbeing in their lives, but something has changed. The Rudd government were elected in November last year and didn’t they promise the world? They promised to keep the lid on petrol prices. They promised to keep grocery prices low. In fact, in the nine months prior to the last election we heard the Prime Minister use that phrase first made famous by US President Harry Truman, ‘The buck stops with me,’ and we heard that 31 times. Since the election he has used the phrase only once. In the nine months prior to the last election the Prime Minister assured us he would stop the blame game, and he assured us of that 146 times. In fact, this afternoon the Minister for Housing confirmed that her government wants to stop the blame game. But since the election the Prime Minister has only assured us 36 times that he will end the blame game. The fact is that the buck has gone down the drain and the blame game continues. We hear that day in and day out in this House—how the 12 years of the previous Howard government are the cause of all the problems facing the Rudd government today.

There is not a day that passes in this place that we do not hear about this blame game and that the difficult economic situation that the Rudd government are facing today is because of the Howard government years. They forget that we left them in the strongest financial position ever—they have a surplus to use to support Australians. The government will soon have been in office for one year. One would have to ask: when will they stop blaming everyone or anyone for the problems they have created and failed to fix? The blame game cannot go on. Those sitting opposite found it quite easy to carp from the sidelines for 11½ years while the previous government rolled up its sleeves and did the hard yards, made the tough decisions. But, now that they find themselves sitting on the government benches, they have discovered that they do not have the ability nor, I believe, the talent to fix the problems they are facing today. Where is the government’s clearly defined strategy to keep our economy strong? I will tell you where it is: they do not have one.

A news poll on 2 July 2008 revealed that the percentage of Australians who believe their standard of living will get worse has more than doubled to 43 per cent and the percentage of Australians who believe their standard of living will improve has dropped to just 13 per cent. This is the lowest confidence level since Labor’s recession that we had to have, and we all remember that recession—the recession we had to have. We recently had the Treasurer saying that the inflation genie was out of the bottle. It is because of the words and actions of the Rudd government that the confidence of Australians to meet the challenges of the future has all but collapsed.

We recently had senior Australians taking their clothes off in the middle of a Melbourne street in an attempt to highlight to the Rudd government that soaring utility prices, soaring petrol prices, soaring grocery prices, soaring rents—and the list goes on and on—are causing them grief and anxiety. Where is the Prime Minister? Where is the Treasurer? Do they even hear the cries for help from senior Australians? What sort of country do we have? What have we become when we have senior Australians turning off their power and risking their health, their wellbeing and even their lives because they cannot even afford the heating bill? What sort of country have we become when senior Australians are unable to pay for a basket of staple foods from the local supermarket?

The Rudd government would like us to believe that senior Australians do not need to worry, that they are in safe hands and that they are in empathetic hands. The Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs in this chamber this afternoon kept saying that they understand the cost-of-living pressures on our seniors and they are reviewing the situation. While our seniors wait for another Rudd government review to be finalised, more and more senior Australians will suffer without any relief at all at the hands of the government. Just today at the National Press Club the Prime Minister talked about creating a fairer Australia. A fairer Australia for whom? It certainly is not fair for our older Australians and in particular for those single age pensioners living on $276 a week with no relief in sight, just another review and another 12-month wait. Will the Rudd government’s fairer Australia reflect his inclusive Australia, which saw senior Australians overlooked at the 2020 summit and on the Social Inclusion Board? The Rudd government has been consistent on one thing—it does exactly the opposite of what it says. Watch out, Australia. If the Prime Minister is telling us we will have a fairer Australia, interpret this as an unfair Australia.

We can apply this same rule to the Rudd government’s so-called inclusion policy. No doubt it will be the exclusion policy when it comes to senior Australians. Pensioners in Australia are struggling to keep their head above water; they are struggling to meet the everyday needs that ensure their health and wellbeing are maintained. They are faced with a government that is not prepared to commit to any relief for them in the short term. All we hear about from this government is review after review, and we are experiencing yet another long wait.

We talk about social inclusion and our senior Australians as being the backbone of our country—they built this wonderful country of ours. Ours is a wealthy country and we should allow our senior Australians to live in dignity and to age with dignity. They need the government’s support to ensure that their wellbeing, safety and health are paramount. They should get a pension and support from this government that will ensure they can maintain a healthy lifestyle as they age.

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