Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do regret that my friend the honourable member for Maribyrnong chose not to accept the intervention that I was seeking to make on his speech on the appropriation bills. It is one of the standing orders in this place which I think helps encourage cross-chamber debate when honourable members are able to stand in the chamber and ask an honourable member who is speaking a question about the substance of what that member is saying. The honourable member for Maribyrnong was talking about pensions and he said that the government had indeed responded to the needs of pensioners in a way that the former government had not. Recently, we had the Fisher Seniors Forum and one of our speakers was Dr Barry Ritchie, head of the Retirement Income Research Group of the Association of Independent Retirees. While the government did receive some initial praise and some positive media coverage on the increase of $10 14 for age pension couples and the increase of $32 49 in the pension for singles, the reality is quite different. What the government has done—and the honourable member for Maribyrnong may not be aware of this—is to give pensioners an increase with one hand and then to take it away with the other hand.

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