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

Prior to the last election the Prime Minister spent months and months telling the Australian people—pensioners, in particular—that he was on their side and that they would be priority No. 1 once he was in the Lodge. But after 10 months in government, 10 months sitting on the government benches, those opposite have abandoned older Australians. Let me read to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, from a Labor Party media statement, dated 13 June 2007, available on the Labor Party website. It says:

Most older Australians struggle to make ends meet on low fixed incomes such as the aged pension …

It goes on:

Older Australians are the lifeblood of the nation. They protected us during World War II and through their hard work they have built our national prosperity.

I say credit where credit is due. I agree completely with those sentiments. Older Australians are our national treasures. They worked hard, they fought wars, they made sacrifices that we take for granted today. They deserve our respect and support in their senior years—unconditionally!

I know those opposite are avid supporters of opinion polls and focus groups and I know they love the media. In fact, wasn’t it former Prime Minister Paul Keating who referred to them as ‘tea-leaf-reading, focus group driven polling types’? Opinion poll after opinion poll and media story after media story are giving the government one, simple, unambiguous message: pensioners need your help and they need it now. So these tea-leaf-reading, focus group driven polling types—the mob opposite—are really not getting the message. I have got news for the Prime Minister, even though he is not here; for the Acting Prime Minister; for the Treasurer; for the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs; for the Minister for Ageing, who is at the table in this House; and for all those sitting on the government benches: as much as they would like it, this issue is far from dead and buried. Pensioners right across this nation are outraged that this government not only has failed them—as if that isn’t bad enough in itself—but does not care about them either. I would be outraged too. What a slap in the face to the many thousands of single age pensioners, single service pensioners and widow B pensioners in this country. The Prime Minister travelled to Niue for the Pacific Islands Forum last month, and there he was in all the photos, like an emperor sitting on his throne. I can just imagine what he was mumbling to himself as he looked down from his throne: let them eat cake! That is what it has come to, except it is not cake but baked beans that our pensioners are living on.

This government just does not get it. We have got the Harmer review, we have got the Henry review and we also had the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs. Reviews and reports do not put food on the table. Our pensioners cannot eat reviews. Increases in the cost of living are placing enormous pressures on our pensioners. Let me tell you about a few items you are likely to find in any pensioner’s shopping basket. Pensioners buy bread. I am sure we all agree bread is not a luxury item. How much do you think the cost of bread has risen by in the first six months under the Rudd government? By 3.2 per cent. What about tea and coffee? These are also not luxury items and are beverages enjoyed by many pensioners across the country. How much has the cost of tea and coffee risen by in the first six months of the Rudd government? By 3.6 per cent. And the list goes on. The cost of butter and margarine has gone up 7.6 per cent. The cost of pharmaceuticals have gone up 12.1 per cent. The cost of electricity has gone up 4.6 per cent. The cost of petrol has gone up 14.6 per cent. I have not even mentioned the rises in rents and general living expenses.

The government are well and truly aware of these rises in the cost of living, and they are well and truly aware of the pressures these rises place on our pensioners. Struggling pensioners are crying out for immediate action, and the government are ignoring them. Those opposite ask why the opposition have left out some groups in our call for a $30-a-week rise in the single age pension, the single service pension and the widow B pension. I have got news for those opposite, who sit in the seats with the power to do something about this. The opposition’s measure is about helping thousands of older Australians; it is about helping those who are most in immediate need of assistance. Single age pensioners live on $273 a week. I ask those opposite: how far does that go?

The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Treasurer and a few others on the back bench have admitted they could not live on $273 dollars a week, yet they have the power to do something about it. They have the power to tell our older Australians: ‘You know what? You’ve done our nation proud. You deserve a certain standard of living in your retirement, and we’re going to do something about it.’ Those on this side of the chamber recognise that. Those on this side of the chamber are saying just that to our pensioners.

The Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs claims the opposition is ignoring two million pensioners. The minister should think very carefully before throwing that accusation around. Perhaps she has not noticed that, while we on this side of the House have committed to taking the first step—that is right: the first step but by no means the last—towards helping pensioners who desperately need assistance, the minister and her government are ignoring every pensioner in this country. I have a simple solution: do something, not nothing, about it. They do not even have to do the work; we have written the bill already.

Instead, what do we get from the government? We have the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs calling the opposition’s motion ‘a stunt’ during question time on 22 September. We have the member for Blair on the same day saying:

This motion is a stunt—pure and simple.

Yesterday during question time the Treasurer said:

We have this ploy on pensions in the House today …

First it is a stunt; then it is a ploy. Obviously their focus group responded better to the use of the word ‘ploy’ than ‘stunt’, so Lachlan Harris updated the talking points.

Here is the clanger. Here is the truth of the matter. Here is how those on the government benches really feel about pensioners:

This is not real work; this is meaningless politics from those opposite.

Who said that yesterday in this place? It was none other than the Leader of the House, the member for Grayndler. This government is out of touch. It did not take it long—just 10 months. We have an ageing population. We all know that is a fact—it is something we all agree on—but, with the way the Rudd government is leading this country, we will have a sick ageing population. This government is putting the health and welfare of older Australians at risk. Why? For what purpose? For a review and yet another review.

We left them with a robust surplus. Start using it responsibly. There are more than 5,900 single age pensioners in my electorate of McPherson. In the neighbouring electorate of Richmond, the electorate of the Minister for Ageing—the member for Richmond is in the House today—there are more than 7,300 single age pensioners. When I return home at the end of this week, I know what I will be saying to the pensioners of my electorate. Has the Minister for Ageing decided what she will say to the single age pensioners, single service pensioners and widow B pensioners of her electorate? She should seriously think about it.

I read today in the Daily News that there will be a pensioner protest rally outside her office when she returns on Friday. That is something for her to look forward to. I am not sure the minister will get the message, though. There was a pensioner rally in Tweed on 30 June. Both the minister and I attended that rally, and she certainly did not get the message then. The chief executive of National Seniors Australia, Michael O’Neill, told the Age newspaper that he would be encouraging the 280,000 members of his organisation to contact their local MP to demand an explanation.

This is what it has come to—pensioners in revolt. They stripped on the streets of Melbourne earlier this year to vent their anger. They wanted their message heard because it was falling on deaf ears. This is why the government’s actions—or inaction—are so baffling. They say they could not live on $273 a week; they acknowledge how tough pensioners are doing it right now; yet, in some bizarre attempt to reassure pensioners, they tell them to stop whingeing because they were paid the seniors bonus and the utilities allowance in the 2007-08 budget.

After the May budget the Prime Minister hit the airwaves, extolling the virtues and benefits of the budget for pensioners. In Melbourne he said:

… in the case of seniors, they have been provided with $900 per year more than they were in the previous budget of Mr Howard …

The Treasurer had the same thing to say in Perth, and the minister for families said the same thing in Brisbane. Even the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator McLucas, gave it a red-hot going over, speaking at a pensioner rally in West End.

Let me set them all straight, courtesy of Dennis Atkins writing in the Courier-Mail on 24 May this year. He writes:

Of that claimed “$900 extra”, $500 was a repeat of the seniors’ bonus introduced by Howard last year. The rest was the $393 increase in the utilities allowance from the Howard government’s $107 to $500.

But there is more. Atkins goes on to say:

This means the net increase for the majority of seniors from this Budget was $7.50 a week which would buy a regular Big Mac meal.

Pensioners are a smart lot. They can see right through this government’s spin. They know exactly how poorly they fared in this year’s budget. Let me read to you from a letter to the editor of my local newspaper, the Gold Coast Bulletin. The letter writer says:

Things might be going swimmingly well in Wayne’s world. However, in the world of Australia’s aged pensioners it is a daily struggle to survive as they drown in a sea of ever-increasing food prices, sky-high petrol hikes and electricity, water and gas prices that produce a standard of living that can best be described as being on the breadline.

Every pensioner in this country understands they do not have the support of this government. How can they have confidence in their local Labor member and their government when they so blatantly slap them across the face and say, ‘No, you are not deserving of help; you are not deserving of assistance from this government’? As those opposite head back to their electorates this week, they should ask themselves whether the pensioners living in their electorates should cancel Christmas this year. This government will have a lot to answer for if the most vulnerable people in this country cannot afford to celebrate Christmas. Will the Prime Minister be the Grinch Who Stole Christmas?

This government is running out of time. It has the opportunity, it has the motive, it has the power and, dare I say it, it has the obligation to do something for the pensioners of this country—and do it now. Those opposite promised pensioners the world prior to the last election—the world—and all they have delivered is a can of baked beans.

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