Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I talk to the many age pensioners in my electorate—and there are a lot in the electorate of Bendigo: in fact, 18,500—they talk to me about the despair and lack of hope they have about trying to survive on the age pension currently. They talk about the embarrassment that they have about having to ask for help from their children to pay the bills. They talk about the need to access emergency relief because they simply cannot survive on days 12 and 13 of the pension cycle. These people are not leaners, as this government likes to call them. These are hardworking people who in their retirement deserve respect, dignity and support from their government. When these people started working in their early 20s and 30s, there was not such a thing as superannuation. They worked hard and, as my colleagues have said, they have earnt the right to have a decent income in retirement.

Yet all we have seen from this government is nothing but cuts. All we have seen from this government is a lack of respect for some of our hardest working Australians, who in their retirement need our support and need respect from this government. This is a government whose Prime Minister, prior to the election, said that there would be no changes to pensions. You can understand why the pensioners in my electorate and in electorates around the country are outraged that this government is proposing to cut their pension by $80 a week over the next decade. It is a disgrace, and this government and this Prime Minister should stop trying to pocket the pensions of so many people. (Time expired)

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