Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare, Women and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to join my colleagues in speaking against the Social Security and Veterans’ Entitlements Amendment (Commonwealth Seniors Health Card) Bill 2009. This bill, if passed, will have an extraordinarily detrimental impact on self-funded retirees, particularly those living in rural and regional Australia, including in my electorate in north-east Victoria. It will change the rules governing income assessments on self-funded retirees to determine their eligibility for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

The Labor government is asking parliament to support them in introducing a new clause in the income test on seniors to allow for the inclusion of income from superannuation—an income that is salary-sacrificed to superannuation—to a retired person’s adjusted taxable income for the purpose of assessing their eligibility for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. This is a direct attack on self-funded retirees. You would think, at a time when many of them have suffered because their assets and their finances have been frozen, that this government would think about the hardship they are facing. But, no, these people are under attack. These are the people who have worked hard to build their savings, to build their superannuation and who have continued to manage their superannuation into retirement. They will definitely suffer if this bill is allowed to pass and changes are made to the income test to include superannuation.

There are more than 19,000 people aged over 65 in my electorate. This figure is predicted to grow to almost 29,000 people by 2020 and to over 41,000 people in 2035. A very significant proportion of the population in my electorate are retired, and many of them are self-funded retirees. Many of them, in their retirement, do come from other parts of Australia—for good reason—to retire in the north-east.

So, despite what the Labor government would have people think, the majority of self-funded retirees are not wealthy individuals squandering their super during retirement years. It is no wonder that those on the other side show no interest and total disregard for the plight that will face our seniors in retirement who have changed their arrangements after the previous government changed the income test to allow them to include superannuation income.

Many of the self-funded retirees in north-east Victoria do live on a restricted pension-style income, just as those who live on a government-funded age pension do. The difference is that self-funded retirees have earned and saved their retirement income during their working lives. This bill and this government directly want to punish them. I suppose it is part of the class war of envy that is becoming more and more apparent from the government during these difficult times—when they panic and have a knee-jerk reaction in responding to the economic situation confronting us. If this bill is passed and the government is allowed to include superannuation income in the income test for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, it will jeopardise the eligibility of many who have come to rely on it.

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