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

It is with great pleasure that I rise today. I received this text message from my indomitable staff member Margaret, in my Perth office, in northern Tasmania yesterday. I'll read it out, with your indulgence:

I have dealt with 4 couples this morning. They applied for age pension months ago. One was for November 2017. One told me this morning he is borrowing money from friends just to survive. Another has racked up $40,000 on his credit card. Another is trying to find work to make ends meet (he is 67 years old). One was escalated by—

and I've been given a name of a contact at Centrelink—

a week ago and still nothing has happened.

Centrelink seems to be getting swamped with age pension claims. Any one would think it has a lot to do with baby boomers retiring. The government has been aware of how many baby boomers would be retiring and should have taken staffing requirements to process claims into account.

This text gave me pause to think, what's happening with age pensioners in this country? How do we treat age pensioners? We know how this government treats age pensioners. The government has still got a $14 per fortnight energy supplement cut in its budget for pensioners, carers and people struggling on Newstart.

The Liberals can't afford $14 per fortnight for pensioners, but they can afford $17 billion to reward banks that rip off customers, forge signatures and charge fees to dead people. There's no $14 for pensioners, but there's $17 billion for banks. It's a direct transfer of wealth and income from the poorest people in our community to some of the wealthiest corporations. That's an outrage.

This goes to our values and priorities as a country. We know the Liberals are all about looking after people who already have money. They think the more money that rich people have, the better off the rest of us will be. The formula has never worked throughout history, but they stick with it. Labor believes in looking after people, full stop. We know that providing the framework for a fair and decent society offers the best future for us all, and I know that's what the Leader of the Opposition will be talking about in this budget reply speech tonight.

Some people, like the Liberals, believe that the country should be run like a business: cut your costs, do everything as cheaply as possible and pay the workforce as little as you can legally get away with—it's all about profit and loss. I believe the country should be run like a family. Families still have to stick to a budget and they still have to live within their means, but there's a different type of thinking going on. You think about what's best for the people you love and care about, not about the least you can get away with. You want your family to live in a nice place and, importantly, you look after grandma—not because you have to but because you want to and because you respect the role that she has played in your life, allowing you to get to where you are in society.

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