Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

With respect, Mr Deputy Speaker, I have been totally focused on the seniors health card and other measures bill. No wonder they are worried. These one-term wonders have wreaked this horrible budget on their seniors. No wonder they are nervous. They are getting a little bit flighty, a little bit punchy maybe.

I am not for one minute suggesting that the government's proposal to spend $95.5 million to increase eligibility for the seniors health card for those at the top of the pay scale means that you have a comfortable lifestyle. I understand that. I have met with many of my self-funded retirees and I have spoken—in fact, at Mount Gravatt, in your electorate, Mr Deputy Speaker Vasta—at some of the self-funded retirees forums. But, in the context of the budget and the horrible budget decisions visited upon older Australians, the Labor Party will oppose this bill.

We believe that assistance needs to be provided through pensions and income support, and all the cuts that have been trotted out by Prime Minister Abbott are what we are focused on. We provided an historic increase to the pension when in government—the biggest in 100 years. It meant that pensioners could better meet front-line services. Obviously, it is in our DNA to look after the pension; it is something we hold dear. Those people who are already struggling to make ends meet will be slugged with a tax every time they go to the doctor, which will easily increase above $550 per household that those opposite claim is the cost; but, as we know, that is an average. Pensioners understand electricity and gas. They know how to put on a jumper and how to turn off lights in a room. For them to be slugged with all these other costs and for the idiots opposite to then hold up this $550 is unbelievable. Those opposite are betrayed by their own brain, obviously.

Seniors will now be paying higher fees for their medicines and will suffer the repercussions of the heavy burden put on our health care system as the government slashes funding to health and hospitals, even though they said before the election that that would not take place. The bill before the House betrays the government's twisted priorities to support higher income earners, or people with more money, while cutting support for vulnerable Australians. It is a weird budget, where the government asks the people who are the poorest and most vulnerable to do all the heavy lifting, while the top quartile does the lightest work in this budget. They obviously smoked too many cigars and did not do enough thinking, and that is why this toxic budget will come back to bite them at the next election.

Even Australia's GPs are saying that the GP tax is unfair and bad for the health of ordinary Australians. Pensioners and families are under constant attack from this government, and with the fuel tax and other taxes on the cost of living, this legislation should be resisted. (Time expired)

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