Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

If the member for Jagajaga would stop interrupting, she may like to know that the pension is the largest single budget item—some 10 per cent—more than $40 billion and growing at six per cent per annum. We in this place have said that we will ensure the pension is sustainable over time, reducing the burden on the taxpayer. How are we doing that? We are changing the taper rate and the assets-free threshold and are ensuring that some people who are currently getting a part pension will no longer get a part pension. But some people who are needy, some 50,000, who are getting the part pension will now get the full pension and 170,000 Australians who are on the pension will get an extra $30 a fortnight. Why is the Labor Party and the member for Jagajaga against low-income and low-asset-holding Australians getting an extra $30 a fortnight under us?

We have seen Labor's hopeless record on the pension and on superannuation—let me just add a third. That is the unclaimed moneys regime whereby Labor changed the years, from seven years to three years. Another desperate cash grab. And do not think that this does not hurt older, senior Australians. Because I will tell you a story, which was in The Daily Telegraph, of 82-year-old Maura Stanford, who went to her local bank to take out money from a 'rainy day' fund to pay a tradesman. When she went to get the money, it was not there. What had happened? Was it targeted by a scammer? No. It was targeted by the now Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party.

The problem with the Labor Party is that they do not value, they do not understand and they do not trust Australians to save for their own retirement, to reduce pressure on the pension.

The final thing I want to mention is the reason why we are committed to superannuation, a sustainable pension and to saving people's money that is unclaimed is that we have an ageing population. We will have 40,000 centenarians in Australia over the next 40 years, compared to just 122 in 1974. The number of people over the age of 65 in Australia by 2055 will have doubled and the ratio of working Australians to retired Australians will go from 4.5 to 2.7. The coalition are better prepared to look after the senior citizens of Australia.

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