Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving immediately—That this House:

(1)

condemns Prime Minister Rudd and his Government for their failure to urgently act to help older Australians battling to make ends meet and live with dignity on the single aged pension, and, in particular, for:

(a)

promising Australia last year that they would do something about cost of living pressures when they have done nothing but watch fuel, grocery and housing costs soar;

(b)

the Government’s damning admission that while neither the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister nor the Treasurer could live on the single aged pension rate of $273 per week, they have refused to do anything about it;

(c)

the Government’s failure to increase pensions in the May Budget when the Treasurer’s own Budget speech highlighted an 18 per cent increase in the price of bread and only mentioned ‘pensioners’ once;

(d)

failing to give pensioners real and immediate help despite the fact that his own pension authority, led by Dr Jeff Harmer who is also chairing their new pension review, provided Cabinet with an 83 page report of options to ease pensioners’ pain during recent Budget deliberations;

(e)

failing to support the Coalition’s call for either an additional lump sum payment for pensioners, or an immediate $30 per week increase to the single aged pension; and, most importantly,

(2)

condemns the member for Griffith for turning the job of Prime Minister from a position where tough decisions are made and action is taken into one, under his 10 month term, where process overrides people and where spin masquerades as substance.

Under the previous coalition government, Australian pensioners received on average, for each of the 11 years, a two per cent real increase in the pension above and beyond inflation. The indexation of the pension was matched to a minimum of male average total weekly earnings or the consumer price index. A 30 per cent private health insurance rebate was introduced. There were changes to the tapering rate to allow and encourage pensioners to earn a little bit more income. A utilities allowance was introduced. A lump sum payment annually was introduced. An enormous amount of reforms were introduced to assist the plight of Australian pensioners.

A report which we know that the Prime Minister received prior to the budget this year confirmed, amongst other things, that in the 10 years to 2007, under the previous government, there was an increase in the financial position for people surviving on the age pension of 19 per cent for singles and 19.4 per cent for couples. In other words, through a long period of economic growth and economic certainty, when this country was governed by a government that actually made decisions, a coalition government, Australian pensioners and Australians generally had certainty in relation to their position and their economic future.

In 2007 the then Leader of the Opposition, now the Prime Minister, went around Australia and said a lot of things to Australians. He led them to believe that he would do something about petrol. He led them to believe that he would do something about cost-of-living pressures. He led the pensioners of this country to believe that he would do something about groceries. He led all Australians to believe that in some way he would make things better. Well, less than a year since he came to office, Australians are worse off today than they were under the coalition. And there is no group that is worse off in this country than those living on fixed incomes and, in particular, single age pensioners surviving on $273 a week. In the past week the Prime Minister and six of his frontbench ministers have said that they could not live on $273 a week. They have said they could not do it, and yet they demand that close to 900,000 Australians—full and part pensioners, trying to survive on $273 a week—do exactly that.

Australia’s pensioners and carers remember that, prior to the budget this year, we had a lengthy debate in this parliament about lump sum payments. For five days the Prime Minister would not confirm that he would deliver a lump sum payment to Australia’s pensioners. It was only under pressure from the coalition, the opposition, that he finally admitted that he would deliver a single lump sum payment. We then had the spectacle of the budget speech. We now know that the Prime Minister—who is the chief bureaucrat of the country, not a Prime Minister—shortly after that debate said to his officials: ‘Gee, I’d better write a letter to the Treasurer. There’s going to be a problem with these pensioners.’ So he then gets an 83-page report that tells him precisely what the options are and what the government can do to improve the position of Australian pensioners, delivered by no less than Dr Jeff Harmer. What was his response to that? What was the government’s response? It had all the options. It had an 83-page report. Cost-of-living pressures have gone through the roof under the Rudd Labor government. What did the Prime Minister do? He said, ‘I know—we’ll form a committee, and the committee will be chaired by the same bloke that has just given me an 83-page report.’

So the Australian pensioners sat down to their processed sausages and jam sandwiches for dinner and watched the budget to find out what was going to happen to pensioners in the budget. They watched the budget speech from the Treasurer—that nervous bloke that is in charge of our $1.1 trillion economy—and waited to find out what was going to be delivered for them. In a 30-minute speech on the budget, the word ‘pensioner’ appeared once. Once in 30 minutes, the Treasurer mentioned the word ‘pensioner’. But thanks to The Hollowmen, that ABC documentary about the Prime Minister’s office, the term ‘working families’ appeared, in contrast, 12 times—12 times for ‘working families’, once for ‘pensioners’.

It is important that the Prime Minister appreciates just how desperate the situation is for Australian pensioners. This is a Prime Minister who next week is not going to be in Australia. He is not going to be in the Australian parliament. He is going to visit his 16th country since he has been the Prime Minister. So at the same time that this parliament will be debating the issues of Australian pensioners trying to live on $273 a week—not $273 an hour—the Prime Minister of the country is going to go to the United Nations. He has got a plan for the world, he has got a plan for Asia, but he has got no plan for Australia and no plan to do anything other than wait for a committee to tell him what he has got to do for Australian pensioners.

The Prime Minister needs to understand something, and that is: to live on $273 a week under a Rudd Labor government is the most distressing and hardest thing that close to 900,000 Australians are doing. I have received, for example, an email today from a lady in Woodcroft, South Australia, who says:

I am appalled at Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan’s response to suggestions for an immediate increase for single pensioners. Does this not indicate a complete disregard and lack of understanding for the plight of pensioners or is it simply a contempt for a section of the Australian community that are unable to give Kevin Rudd the global kudos he appears to crave? I have to go to the supermarket to buy packets of toilet rolls, bread and a can of Homebrand baked beans plus any visits I might have to make to my local GP.

Prime Minister, that is the reality for Australia’s pensioners—baked beans and jam sandwiches. That is what they are living on when you are at the United Nations General Assembly and the parliament sits at the cost of $1 million a day.

It is time that the government made a decision, instead of having a committee to organise a committee to tell you what to do. Prime Minister, these are the men and women who have made this country what it is. It is their sacrifices that gave our generation what we have. They did not buy something until they had saved up for it. They thought their responsibilities to one another and their country were more important than their rights. They thought that values were more important than the value of things. Thanks to the previous coalition government, the Labor government sit on a $22 billion surplus while Australian pensioners live on baked beans and jam sandwiches.

Prime Minister, the whole idea of being the Prime Minister is to make decisions in the interests of Australia. The pensioners of this country are diminished. You are diminished. Your government is diminished. You have demeaned our country by not delivering an immediate increase in the single base rate of age pension. It is disgraceful.

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