Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Intergenerational report is an opportunity for a government to outline a vision for the nation, to talk to the nation about the challenges and opportunities for the long term, to rise above day-to-day politics, to rise above point-scoring and to rise above sledging the previous administrations, but the Treasurer and the government have shown themselves incapable of doing that. The Intergenerational reportis not meant to be a belated, half-hearted attempt to sell an unfair budget. The Intergenerational report is not meant to be an opportunity to sledge previous administrations. The Intergenerational report is meant to be about the future. This Intergenerational report has eight pages on the future and 80 pages on the past. This Intergenerational report has been politicised like no other. The member for North Sydney is the third Treasurer to bring down an Intergenerational report and he is the first to politicise it in such a blatant manner. The Intergenerational report, as the Treasurer himself today said, is a document of the Treasurer. It is not an independent analysis of the Treasury, but a document of the Treasurer. But this Treasurer is the first to so blatantly politicise it.

Even as the government attempts to politicise this document, they have not done so honestly or competently. On 45 occasions this document talks about previous policies. When you look closely at these previous policies, they are the previous policies of the Treasurer. They are the policies as outlined in his mid-year economic statement. They are the policies as outlined in the document which he owns. They are policies like giving $9 billion to the Reserve Bank, an increase in spending by $14 billion. They are his policies; previous government policies. They are the policies that government. As they attempt to rewrite history, they do not even do so competently or honestly. They talk about previous policies. Yes, they are policies they once had—policies never embraced by this side—like giving $9 billion to the Reserve Bank. If we are going to have a conversation about the future, let us do so honestly and let us have a competent and clear exposition of the facts.

There are other ways that this document is fundamentally flawed. I asked the Treasurer yesterday in the House whether the document would reflect his government's policy of restoring the private health insurance rebate in full. Members will recall that the previous Labor government means tested the private health insurance rebate to make it fairer and more sustainable. That was a very important fiscal reform, not a small one. It saved $25 billion over 10 years or $100 billion over 40 years. We did it against the opposition of the Liberal and National parties, because apparently the age of entitlement is not over for all. But it was done.

The now Prime Minister, as Leader of the Opposition, and the then shadow Treasurer promised to restore it. They did not say that they would do it immediately, in fairness. They said they would restore it when they could. That was within the decade, as the budget returned to surplus. The Treasurer today is predicting a return to surplus in 2028 in his own document. Does the Intergenerational report assumed that the private health insurance rebate is restored in full? There is not a word. It is a fundamentally dishonest projection of government policy. Either the Treasurer should walk away from his policy and admit he got it wrong, admit that the private health insurance rebate should be means tested and admit they will never restore it or the document should reflect government policy. It has neither of those things; that is the truth. If the Treasurer and the government are going to engage in a discussion about the future, we are in it. But we will do so honestly and we will do so based on the facts. We will not do so based on false protections, as claimed in this document.

There is another interesting projection in here which honourable members will be extremely interested in. It relates the age pension. This government is changing the indexation of the age pension. This government is saying that CPI is fair. This government says that pensioners should not have their pension linked to their average weekly earnings. It is a fundamentally different approach to this side of the House. When we were in office, we made the indexation fairer. We introduced more ways the pension could be increased, not less. We said that pensioners deserve a fair pension, linked to the pension, the CPI or a basket of goods which reflected what pensioners actually buy.

That is not good enough this government. They said, 'No, no. Pensioners don't deserve that.' They attempted to change the policy. Today, we have an acknowledgement for first time that this is not fair, because the government says that when they return to surplus they project that they will return the pension to being linked to average weekly earnings. So poor people will have to be on the pension for the next 12 years. The leaners—apparently, according to the Treasurer—have to put up with an unfair indexation measure, but apparently into the future that will be changed.

Here we have assumptions and forecasts made not by the Treasury, not by the Department of Finance, not by the Parliamentary Budget Office but by the member for North Sydney. This is his political document. This is his half-hearted and belated attempt to sell what he has been incapable of selling up until now for the next 10 months: his budget. That is why his use the Intergenerational report. It is an abuse of what the Intergenerational report should be used for.

We know that this government has one way of dealing with demographic change. There is demographic change in Australia—of course there is. Governments need to deal with it. They have one way: making you work longer and then giving you less when you eventually are allowed to retire. This Treasurer, in his grace, allows you to retire after you have worked longer than any other worker in the developed world! The Treasurer says to carpenters, bricklayers, policeman, nurses and soldiers, 'I'm going to make you work until you are 70.'

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