Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

There is no bill on the Notice Paper here today probably because the Leader of the Opposition finally figured out, via Laurie Oakes when he was cross-examining the member for North Sydney yesterday, that the member for North Sydney had no clue that it is completely unconstitutional for them to put a bill like this into the parliament. There is no bill here in the parliament today. So much for it being urgent; there is nothing on the Notice Paper today.

The member for Warringah should actually read the responses to his blog in the Daily Telegraph today because I think members of the public have really summed up their view of what this opposition is all about. One voter says:

This is cheap politics at its lowest point and part of the reason Howard (and Nelson, and Abbott) were given the flick.

“Mean and Tricky” was the Liberal Party’s own assessment of itself and how true it still is …

Another writer says to the member for Warringah:

You can’t start blaming the current government, for former Liberal party indifference to our elderly!

Of course, it is the case that pensioners did not all of a sudden start needing an improvement in the base rate of the pension on 24 November last year.

We have had a look at the coalition’s policy that they took to the election. Was there any mention of increasing the base rate of the pension? There was absolutely none. We know from a book that is supposed to be released today that the former Treasurer argued against the former minister for families, Mal Brough, when he wanted to increase the base rate of the pension—Mr Howard opposed it, the member for Higgins opposed it and the cabinet opposed it. That is why there was no increase in the base rate of the pension. What did we do when we first came into government? We recognised that pensioners were under significant financial pressure. In the first piece of legislation that I put into the parliament we increased the utilities allowance from $170 to $500 a year. For the first time—it was not the previous government that did this—we extended that utilities allowance to carers and to people on the disability support pension. That had never been done before. As a result of our move all of those people are now getting a $500 utilities allowance which they did not get under the Howard government.

What do we have from those opposite in this hastily cobbled together proposal from the Leader of the Opposition? It was hastily cobbled together because he is under so much political pressure from those sitting behind him. We have no bill. There is no new proposal in front of the parliament, and if they do finally get their act together what we know is that they are going to leave out 2.2 million pensioners, carers, veterans, people on the disability support pension and married couples who are on the pension who are also doing it tough.

Let us have a look at some of the comments that were made by some of some of the people who are doing it so hard in our community and who the Leader of the Opposition has decided he can just ignore. The carers put out a press release just last week, following the Leader of the Opposition’s proposal that completely ignored carers. They said:

The fact that the current proposal from the Leader of the Opposition leaves out so many Australians further highlights the need for long-term reform—

this is the carers saying this—

The significance of the pension review cannot be overstated.

But, of course, the Leader of the Opposition thinks that he knows better than carers. Rob Allen, from a group representing those on the disability support pension, says when talking about the Leader of the Opposition:

If his concern is genuine and not a stunt to politically grandstand, then they must not only advocate for an increase in the disability support pension and carer payment but he must also explain to the Australian community why they were not considered in the first place.

How true that is. I really thought the comment from the Vietnam veterans summed it up. The National President of the Vietnam Veterans Association said:

Dr Nelson spent Tuesday speaking with hundreds of veterans at the RSL’s national congress, yet the next day seemed to have forgotten about us altogether.

This Leader of the Opposition hastily cobbles together a proposal apparently designed to increase the single base rate of the pension. He is ignoring married pensioners, carers and those on the disability support pension. He is ignoring all of those people because all he is about is saving his own political hide. There is no proposal whatsoever before the parliament; he has offered no properly costed proposal. This is the other issue. This Leader of the Opposition has demonstrated that he cares only about his own leadership. He does not care about getting the proposal right. He is ignoring 2.2 million pensioners and he cannot cost his policy. The costings that he has proposed for the single base rate of the pension are about $900 million shy of what it would actually cost. He cannot cost the policy, he cannot get a bill ready for the parliament and he leaves out 2.2 million pensioners.

The Australian public is well aware that this is a political stunt. It is all aimed at protecting this failing Leader of the Opposition’s leadership. A number of people in the media who are engaging in serious commentary recognise that this is a very complex task, and it is one that this government is determined to get right. We are not going to play politics with pensioners. We have already delivered an increase of $900 to pensioners and carers to ensure they get the extra support they need. On top of that, we have delivered an increase in the telephone allowance and we are ensuring that their transport concessions can be used across state boundaries. All of these changes are available to pensioners to ensure that they can better make ends meet. We know that the social security system is complex. We intend to get it right and not play politics like this Leader of the Opposition is.

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