Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Hansard source

The interjection was not worth repeating after all, so I will just ignore it. But I would like to refer specifically to the final part of the motion, which the member spoke quite eloquently about. It demands that all state and territory governments commit to permanently quarantining last September’s pension rise in the calculation of pensioners’ public housing rent levels and other state and territory government controlled costs. That is one area where the member for Lyons and I will be in furious agreement. Pensioners are telling me in calls, emails and correspondence to my office that they simply are not that much better off once the state government gets their hands on the money. That is a critical issue for us in this place: how do we protect future pension increases, arising from what I believe are good policy decisions, from the grubby hands of state treasurers?

It is a shameful situation when one level of government is giving with one hand and the other level of government is taking with the other. The member quite rightly referred to the situation of public housing rents, and it has been a very significant issue in my electorate, where I have been contacted by pensioners. These people are not mugs; they know when they are being ripped off. They know that, on the one hand, they have a federal government making some big announcements and getting credit—and deservedly so—for increasing the rate of the pension but, on the other hand, they are getting an increase in their public housing rents by their state governments. So I call on colleagues within the state administrations to have a real look into their own hearts when it comes to this issue. It is a very important issue. They are not fooling anyone. The state administrations have fleeced pensioners of at least some of the benefits that are included in the increased pension rates, and they have eroded the benefit of those increased pensions. As I said, I myself have had several letters on the issue, as the member for Lyons has, and I am happy to work with the member for Lyons and all other members of goodwill to achieve a better deal for pensioners in the future. We really need to keep the state treasurers away from any future increases.

More generally, this entire issue of retirement income reform is, I believe, one that the parliament is going to have to spend a lot more time considering in the months and years ahead. We are going to need to be more innovative in making policy reforms that do not penalise pensioners when they happen to get a bit of part-time work. They are not going to be turned into millionaires on the basis of the pension and some part-time work they get on the side. We are going to have to find ways to give them more dignity in their retirement and more control of their own financial futures. I think that is a critical issue of reform for this parliament and beyond. As I said previously, it is important that, when we talk about this issue of older Australians, we do not forget the self-funded retirees. It would be a mistake to think that they are not feeling the pain of the global economic situation at the moment. So I thank the member for raising this issue, and I believe it is a good debate to have.

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