Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Why are they defending the big end of town, as my good colleague to my right has suggested? So he might want to explain that. He might also want to explain why, when 10 per cent of taxpayers pay approximately 60 per cent of all income taxes, they are not carrying their fair share of the burden. So, once again, we have listened to 15 minutes of those opposite, with nothing constructive to say, whingeing, whining and complaining.

It is my pleasure to rise in the chamber today to support the coalition government's plan to reinstate the much-needed assistance to pensioners and low-income earners through the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Energy Assistance Payment and Pensioner Concession Card) Bill 2017. This move is testament to the government's commitment to helping those in the Australian community who most need it and are incredibly deserving of all the support we can potentially give them.

That is what is so important about what we are trying to do as a government in repairing the budget. We are seeking to ensure that we have the resources and the finances to help those most in need.

It might be instructive to remind the member for Bruce, before he leaves the chamber, that it was those opposite who voted against the multinational tax avoidance bills that this government put through this parliament 18 months or so ago. Some $2-billion-odd of additional revenue is being generated so far, and another $4-billion-odd is in the budget that we have just handed down.

So those opposite can wax lyrical all they like about support for the big end of town, but they are the ones actually defending the big end of town. They are the ones that have done the deals with unions that have ripped wages and conditions from low-paid workers around the country, whether it is Cleanevent, whether it is Coles or Woolies employees, where they have traded off their penalty rates and conditions and got paid by the union for the privilege. There is KFC and many other workers around this country. Those opposite on many, many occasions have demonstrated very clearly that what they say and what they do are two completely different things. They say they support the workers, but in the end they stab them in the back and allow their wages and conditions to be traded away.

This government, through this bill and many other things that we are doing, is looking to ensure that it supports Australians right across the country. This bill will support some 24,000 people in my electorate who have the ability to earn additional income and will become eligible through these changes. They are made up of some 15,000 people on the age pension, some 6,000 people on the disability support pension and a number of others.

These payments are not huge, I acknowledge that. But they are a contribution towards the cost of living for people in circumstances who are finding it difficult to make ends meet—in particular, because of the cost of electricity. As the member for Hughes rightly pointed out in his contribution, under those opposite, in their six years of government, we saw electricity prices rise by some 118 per cent, in large part due to the carbon tax that they introduced. We know that their policy is to introduce a 50 per cent renewable energy target, which is only going to do one thing: push electricity prices up further. They say that they increased pensions and other things during the time when they introduced the carbon tax. Well, they did, but that was compensation for the introduction of the carbon tax. When we came into government and abolished the carbon tax, we left those increases in place, including the increase in the tax-free threshold. So again it is a demonstration on this side of the House that we have the runs on the board for supporting those who need that help and support. In abolishing the carbon tax we allowed the tax-free threshold to stay and we maintained those increases in the pension. Australians actually got a real benefit from the changes we made in abolishing the carbon tax.

This bill, along with many others that we are introducing through this budget, provides that support and assistance to people across the country. It is important that we continue to work on these changes to help facilitate people accessing the discounts and concessions that were offered by the state and territory governments and private providers. Interestingly, all of these organisations could actually provide these discounts and concessions of their own free will. There was no need for them to abolish those concessions and discounts just because people lost their pension concession card. In some cases, some councils—I give due credit to Logan City Council—did maintain the pensioner discount for a period after the abolition of the pension concession card. But everybody else could still do exactly the same thing today for people who are over age 65 or whatever limit those organisations decide to make as their cut-off. But, as I have said, the purpose of this bill is to reintroduce that so we create clarity and these organisations can once again introduce those discounts and concessions and allow people to get those concessions back.

Consistent with the health care card and the Commonwealth seniors health card, the pension concession card will automatically be reissued over time, with the ongoing income and asset test exemption. The reissuing of these cards will come at a cost of some $3.1 million to the budget, but overall this is a small price to pay for ensuring that these people, who need it most, have the support and assistance they need with their daily budgets to ensure they have a reasonable standard of living in retirement.

I spend a lot of time visiting and speaking with pensioners and seniors across my electorate of Forde, particularly with my regular seniors' village visits, which are a highlight across the electorate. I always enjoy getting out to meet them. We enjoy some great coffee and some scones with jam and cream. There is always an interesting, broad discussion over a wide range of topics. Our seniors are very important to our community. Many of them get out into the community and volunteer for many community organisations. I talk to many of them and many of them tell me they almost work harder in retirement than they did when they were working. It is a wonderful contribution we see from these people who have already spent so much of their lives contributing to and building our great country. They continue to make our communities what they are today.

Access to financial as well as social support is a big issue for many of these citizens in our community. I am pleased to say that we as a government are seeking to find ways to continue to support these people, to provide that encouragement for them and to help minimise in some respects the impact of cost of living pressures, particularly with rising electricity prices. As we have seen in other parts of the budget, we have made it very clear that we are looking to do things in the energy space to try to put downward pressure on energy prices. Again, as the member for Hughes has outlined, in our time in government, as a comparison to the time of those opposite, the increases in electricity prices have been somewhere around 2½ per cent. I know from talking to people in my electorate that they do not necessarily feel that that is a lived reality. It is important that we provide support to them through these measures and other aspects of the budget to ensure that they feel as if they can have an enjoyable retirement. I commend this bill to the House.

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