Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Energy Assistance Payment and Pensioner Concession Card) Bill 2017. This government's record when it comes to Australian pensioners is a national disgrace. Australian pensioners helped build this country. Their reward under this government has been an all-out assault on their living standards. For four years, this government has tried to cut the incomes of Australian pensioners. Every step of the way, Labor has been there standing guard to shield Australian pensioners from this government's assaults on their cost of living. Labor opposed this government's attempt to change indexation that would have seen pensioners lose $80 in income over 10 years. Labor opposed this government's attempt to reset the deeming rate thresholds that would have seen 500,000 pensioners worse off. Labor opposed this government's reduction in assets tests that cut the pension for 330,000 pensioners today and will cut pensions for a million retirees within a decade. Labor opposed and opposes this government's attempt to increase the pension age to 70. And Labor opposes this government's continuing attempt to abolish the annual $365 energy supplement for single pensioners—a supplement introduced by a Labor government. Every time this government has assaulted the incomes and conditions of Australian pensioners, Labor has been there to defend them.

Labor is not opposing the bill before the House today. We will not deny pensioners this very modest one-off payment that they will receive as a result of the passage of this bill through the parliament. This one-off Energy Assistance Payment is supposed to assist pensioners with the rapidly and steeply rising cost of electricity across Australia. But let's put it in perspective. It is a $75 one-off payment. That equates to $1.44 a week or 20c a day. The pensioners of Australia who are battling crippling increases in power prices and other costs of living will no doubt be delirious with gratitude. Compare that one-off payment to the $30-a week increase in the pension that occurred under the last Labor government: a one-off $75 payment under the Liberals, a $1,560 pension increase under Labor; 20c a day under the Liberals, $4.27 a day under Labor.

But let's go further. The government expects Australian pensioners to be grateful for this $75 one-off payment when, in July, millionaires will be getting a $16,000 a year tax cut. That is 20c a day for pensioners and $44 a day for millionaires. What about those other battlers—the corporations and the banks? This government wants to give them $65 billion in tax cuts over the next 10 years—20c a day for pensioners, $44 a day for millionaires and $18 million a day for corporations and banks. What a stark illustration of this government's priorities when it comes to the public purse: spend less on pensioners, less on school children, less on apprentices, less on university students but more on millionaires and multinationals.

What is worse is that the government had to have its arm twisted into making even this modest payment. This $75 payment is not a Liberal idea and not a Nationals idea for that matter either. It is part of a deal that the government did with the crossbenchers to get their company tax handout through the Senate. This government's preference would have been to see corporations and banks get a $65 billion tax cut and pensioners get a big fat zero. And a big fat zero is what awaits the more than half a million Australians surviving on Newstart. For some reason that escapes me, they do not receive even this modest $75 one-off payment. Excuse me, but do people looking for work not struggle with power bills? What reason beyond meanness or political expediency can there be to deny people on Newstart this payment? The meanness, the miserliness of this government when it comes to the poor in this nation knows no bounds. Similarly, the largesse knows no bounds when it comes to rewarding the wealthy and the powerful.

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