Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That all the words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

1. condemns the Government’s cuts to Australian pensioners;

2. notes that the Government is giving a one-off payment of $75 to single pensioners with one hand, while removing the permanent Energy Supplement of $365 per year from all new pensioners;

3. calls on the Government to drop its unfair cuts to pensioners and vulnerable Australians; and

4. calls on the Government to drop its plan to increase the pension age to 70, the oldest pension age in the world.

This afternoon I am speaking on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Energy Assistance Payment and Pensioner Concession Card) Bill 2017. Labor will support this bill. Of course we will not deny pensioners the very modest one-off payment that is outlined in this bill. However, no-one would be surprised to know that Labor will not be letting this government of the hook. We will not let the government get away with their terrible record of cuts to our pensioners, because the Abbott-Turnbull government's record on pensions is nothing short of a disgrace. Today the Liberals will no doubt carry on like they are the best friends that pensioners have ever had, but pensioners will not be fooled; they know the truth. In every single budget the Liberals have handed down since Mr Abbott, the member for Warringah, was elected as Prime Minister, they have proposed cuts to the pension. In four budgets in a row they proposed cuts to pensions. In four budgets in a row we have seen this Liberal and National Party government try to cut the pension. This government has absolutely no shame when it comes to cutting pensions.

Let us be clear: the energy assistance payment in this bill is merely an attempt to distract Australian pensioners from the fact—and this is a fact—that this Liberal government still intends to try to abolish the energy supplement. The government is offering a one-off energy assistance payment of $75. So, $75 will be paid, once, to single pensioners. That is less than $1.50 a week. At the same time, they are going to try to take $365 each and every year from single pensioners by removing the energy supplement to new pensioners. A one-off payment of $75, or $1.50 a week, is nothing like $365 in assistance every single year to help pensioners keep up with increasing energy costs. This is something that pensioners are very familiar with with this Prime Minister, a Prime Minister who is giving with one hand a tiny little bit and taking an awful lot more with the other. Pensioners know that $75 does not equal a cut of $365. Pensioners know this comes from what can only be described as a very two-faced Prime Minister, who wants to claim credit for giving money to pensioners on the one hand but is ripping away far more with the other hand.

We all should remember the origins of this one-off payment. It did not come about as a result of any reform process or policy review; it suddenly appeared on the day that this Liberal-National Party government did a deal with the Senate crossbench to get its company tax cuts through the Senate. That is actually how this came to pass. Let us be very clear about this: this government is not making this one-off payment by choice, and they are certainly not doing it because they care about pensioners. They have done it to get their company tax cut through the Senate. It really tells you all you need to know about this Liberal-National Party government. The only time they are actually motivated to do anything good for pensioners is when they are horse trading to get their company tax cuts through the Senate. Let us look in detail at the trade-off. Pensioners are going to get a one-off—only one—payment of $75. That is on the one hand, while on the other hand billions of dollars in company tax cuts will be delivered to businesses in this country. How on earth could that be fair? Pensioners get $75, or $1.50 a week, once, and businesses get billions of dollars in company tax cuts. This really tells you absolutely everything you need to know about this Liberal-National Party government's priorities.

By contrast, Labor understands the needs of pensioners. It was in the last Labor government that we saw an increase to the pension of $30 a week in 2009, the largest ever increase to the pension. That $30 a week was each and every week, not once. We actually increased the pension. All this government does—the Liberal Party and the National Party—is, each and every year, come up with a new way to cut the pension. On this side of the parliament, we understand that pensioners deserve to be treated with respect in their retirement. We understand that they have worked very hard all of their lives and have contributed enormously to our country. They just want access to a modest pension to be able to enjoy a decent standard of living in retirement. Of course, we will not deny pensioners this very modest one-off payment, but we will oppose, when it comes back into the parliament, the government's attempt to remove the energy supplement from the most vulnerable Australians, and we expect to see that cut re-emerge very soon.

The 2017 budget actually confirms that the Liberals and Nationals still want to abolish this energy supplement. If the Prime Minister really cared about the living expenses of vulnerable Australians, he would not be trying to take this energy supplement off 1.7 million Australians. I just wonder whether all of those opposite actually know that that is what is going to happen when they vote on the abolition of the energy supplement—that 1.7 million Australians, including aged pensioners, disability pensioners, people on the carer payment and people on Newstart are all going to lose the energy supplement. For single pensioners, that will mean a cut of $14.10 a fortnight, or $365 a year. Couple pensioners will be worse off by $21.20 a fortnight, or around $550 a year worse off. The government should stop actually insulting aged and disability support pensioners by trying to give a little bit with one hand and take a lot with the other.

I also want to draw the House's attention to the fact that Newstart recipients will not get one cent of this one-off $75 payment. Australians who are struggling on Newstart will not get anything out of the money in this bill. However, Australians on Newstart do face a cut as a result of the abolition of the energy supplement. A single person on Newstart will lose $8.80 a fortnight, or around $220 a year.

Let's also not forget that when the government came to office in 2013 they promised all Australians lower energy prices. What has actually happened? They promised all Australians, including pensioners, that their energy bills would fall. What actually happened is that wholesale prices have doubled since this government came into office in 2013. Another broken promise, as energy prices have gone through the roof under the Liberals and the Nationals.

The other measure in this bill is the restoration of the pension concession card to around 90,000 pensioners who lost their pension on 1 January this year as a direct result of this government's cut to the pension assets test. Let's not forget why this measure is in this bill. This is actually a very embarrassing backflip for the government. Labor has forced the coalition into this backflip. For two years we have actually highlighted this issue. It has been a double blow for pensioners to both lose their pension or part pension as well as their pensioner card and all of the concessions and discounts that come with it.

Just a few months ago, the Minister for Human Services, Mr Tudge, said on the issue of pensioner concessions that it was a matter for the state, territory and local governments. He was on the radio. The interviewer said, 'But do they lose their pensioner concession card because that gets them discounts on things like rego and council rates, utility bills as well?' Mr Tudge said: 'That's up to each local council and each state and territory government as to how they're going to deal with that. I mean we deal with what the federal policy is…' That is what the Minister for Human Services said back in December last year. The presenter went on to say, 'But you can't give them any guarantee that on the other stuff.' The minister said, 'Well it's up to each state and territory government what their policy decisions are.' All of a sudden it seems the Minister for Human Services and all the other people on the government benches have realised the federal government can restore pensioner concessions to these seniors. What pensioners do know is that they certainly cannot trust the coalition. I will just remind those opposite how this actually came to pass. In the 2015 budget speech the then Treasurer, Joe Hockey, said:

Importantly anyone who currently has a Pensioner Concession Card will continue to receive a concession card that provides the same benefits, such as subsidised utilities and transport …

That is what the government promised in the 2015 budget. But it turned out—pensioners were not surprised about this, of course—that Mr Hockey and everyone on the government benches misled pensioners.

Now, we have, in this bill, the Liberals and the National Party scrambling to try to fix the problem. They all said, 'This will all be fine; we'll give them a Commonwealth seniors health card, and that will entitle them to the same concessions.' Well, they were wrong. They were absolutely wrong. They actually knew that many state government and local council concessions were available to pensioner concession cardholders but not to Commonwealth seniors cardholders. They failed to negotiate concessions with the states and territories to make sure that these former pensioners would not be worse off. The Minister for Social Services and the Minister for Human Services travelled around the country repeating this mistruth. They carried on with the fiction that it was somehow the fault of the states and local councils. That was just untrue. I have been around the country attending many seniors forums. I can tell you that seniors know exactly who created this mess. They blame the Liberal-National government.

Labor, of course, welcomes this backflip. It is a good thing that the government have finally come to their senses on this issue. But no-one should think—and, certainly, pensioners do not think this—that the Liberals or the Nationals have done this out of the goodness of their hearts. They have only done it because they have been caught out. They have done it for political reasons. They have only done it because Labor and pensioner groups have pressured them into it.

If there is one thing that we on this side of the House will not let the Liberal government forget, it is the promise that they made before the 2013 election. They promised—in fact, the member for Warringah did it the night before the election—that there would be 'no cuts to pensions'. That is what the Liberal Party signed up to; that is what the National Party signed up to. Then, in every single budget, the Liberals and the Nationals have handed down budgets that contain cuts to the pension. In the 2014 budget—that horror budget—they tried to cut pension indexation. It was a cut that would have seen pensioners forced to live on $80 a week less over a 10-year period. In 2014, they also tried to reset the deeming rate thresholds—changes that would have hurt half a million part pensioners. Fortunately, we defeated those measures in the parliament. Labor stood firm with pensioners and stopped those horrific cuts going through the parliament.

In 2015, the Liberals did a deal with the Greens to cut the pension to around $330,000 pensioners by changing the pension assets tests. We know—and Senator Cormann has just confirmed again in Senate estimates—that it is still government policy for these people opposite, the Liberals and the Nationals, to increase the pension age to 70. This would give Australia the oldest pension age in the developed world. They cannot deny it. They cannot deny that it is still government policy to make farmers, builders, nurses—all of these people with very tough jobs—continue to work until they are 70. Then we see, in this year's budget, confirmed again, the next cut to pensioners—the axing of the energy supplement.

Labor will not oppose this bill today, but we will continue to do all that we can to protect pensioners from the horror cuts from the Liberal and National parties.

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