Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

No. I am going through all of my talk. But I also make the invitation that, as I am here every day, I am happy to talk to the member.

This budget is pursuing our equity issues as well as the infrastructure investment to which I was referring. It would have perhaps been understandable if this government at this very difficult time had said to the age pensioners: ‘We’re sorry. This is not the year to fix up your issues.’ But we did not take that course of action, because we understand that in difficult economic circumstances those who are most needy suffer the greatest. So not only were we able to support single pensioners and indeed age pensioners but we have been able to redress the relativities between the single age pensioner and the couples age pension. Through our intervention and through this budget we were able to ensure that the single age pensioner now receives approximately two-thirds of the couple’s age pension, whereas previously it was below 60 per cent of the couple’s age pension.

Particularly pleasing for me in the portfolio of disability services was the fact that the people on the disability support pension, of which there are in excess of 700,000, have also received these identical increases. Indeed, people on the carers pension and carers allowance will also receive amounts of money. I do not pretend that resolves every issue that they confront, but it is certainly going to be a welcome addition as carers carry out their invaluable tasks and indeed people on the disability support pension seek to try and improve their position.

These were groups who were neglected by the previous government despite a strong economy. In particular, the disability pensioners did not receive a lot of the fruits of the long boom in the Howard years. This pension increase has ensured, as has previous stimulus packages, that people on a disability pension are not treated as second-class citizens as they were by the previous government. Overall, this is a budget for difficult times. The global economic circumstances indicate numbers that we have not seen since World War II and the Great Depression. Overall, this budget demonstrates a vision for the future and builds an infrastructure for the future and I commend it to the House.

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