Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Every time the Liberals and the Greens do a deal, people suffer. They did a deal to block our proposal for asylum seekers to be taken to Malaysia. They did a deal for debt unlimited—remember debt unlimited? They did a deal to block the CPRS. And now they have done a dirty deal to cut pensions. Every time they do a deal, people suffer.

Nine times before the election, this Prime Minister promised no change to pensions. We have seen an attempt to cut the full rate pension that we on this side stopped. We had to stop it in the Senate, but we stopped it. We defended full rate pensioners. Now they have come back for the part rate pensioners. People who have saved and worked hard all their lives and done the right thing—done what every government in Australian history has asked them to do—are now going to cop it in the neck. It will affect 330,000 part pensioners immediately from 2017, but 700,000 people who are still in the workforce will join them in the following few years.

The government are trying to pretend that these people are millionaires. They keep talking about pensions for millionaires. Let's have a look at what you have to have in the bank to have your pension cut. If you are a couple with your own home, you have to have $451,500. If you are a single, you have to have $289,500. That is what you have to have before having your pension cut under this mob. What do you mean when you say 'assets'? Of course it includes your super. A bit of super is great; it is good that they have saved for their super. But it is also the family car. It is also your household effects. It is also a boat or a caravan. I know a lot of people in the minister's electorate, in the Sutherland Shire, might have a boat tied up down at the jetty. It is the surrender value of insurance policies. Your hobby collections are counted, as are your household contents, including your furniture—maybe the furniture you have inherited from your parents. It is your personal effects; that means your mum's engagement ring might be counted in this test. So you are talking about people who have $451,500 if they are a couple, to last them—what? Twenty years? Thirty years?

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