Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Take, for example, the disability support pensioners that the other side do not want to talk about and those living on the carers pension. They live on the same amount as age pensioners, yet they were completely ignored for 12 years under the Howard government. Under the Howard government they were not even included in the provisions for the utilities allowance, which at the time was $107.20 per year for age pensioners to help them pay their utilities bills. This year, for the first time ever, the Rudd government extended the utilities allowance to those on the DSP and carers. This payment has also been increased fourfold to help pensioners out in the short term while we investigate how best to fix things for the longer term. In fact, as a result of Rudd government measures, all eligible pensioners—singles, couples, carers, veterans, disability pensioners and women on the wife pension—will this week at the latest receive a $128 instalment of their annual $514 utilities allowance. The regular pension indexation increase is $15.30 per fortnight for singles, and that also kicked in this week.

The other mob had 12 years to do something—they did not. So no-one can deny that many pensioners need extra support. The Rudd government want to make sure that we get it right for everyone. We are not just going to pick and choose a couple of categories in the sort of cheap political point-scoring activity we have just seen. Labor are well on the way to completing a comprehensive inquiry into how we can improve the pension system for everyone fairly. When this inquiry has been completed, the government will act quickly, it will act comprehensively and it will act fairly. It is great to know that there have been more than 600 submissions to the inquiry from pensioners in every sector, including carers, age pension couples and people on disability support pensions. So taking a little bit longer and acting more comprehensively, more fairly and, in the end, quickly will help all these people. (Time expired)

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