Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Liberal-National government has a history of cutting the age pension and making life harder for pensioners. They have cut concessions, have done a deal with the Greens party to change the pension assets test, have tried three times to axe the energy supplement and want Australians to work until they're 70 years old.

The minister has also failed to stand up for part-pensioners by refusing to change the deeming rates of interest rates, therefore decreasing the returns pensioners get from their savings. Currently, a single pensioner's savings are deemed at 1.75 per cent on the first $50,200, and any amount over it is deemed at 3.25 per cent. Falling interest rates are impacting the standard of living of many part-pensioners. Interest rates have fallen from 2.25 per cent in February 2015 to 1.50 per cent today, yet the deeming rates have remained the same for more than a thousand days. The rates are supposed to reflect returns across a range of investment choices available in the market, but the Turnbull government is failing to act to lower them. This means that pensioners already squeezed by low interest rates are also being hurt by the Turnbull government's failure to adjust deeming rates. On top of this, people who get a pension from the United Kingdom still aren't getting their pensions fairly indexed, because the United Kingdom's government simply won't do the right thing.

Despite his opening statements on how they're helping pensioners, my series of questions clearly show that there is an awful amount of work that needs to be done by this government when it comes to pensioners. There are six questions. Over the forward estimates, how many pensioners will lose the pension entirely, and how many will have their pension cut as a result of the government's assets test changes? Secondly, if the minister won't provide this number over the forward estimates, why is he hiding it? Thirdly, how many pensioners will be worse off in Longman and Braddon because of the government's asset test changes? Fourthly, has the minister received advice about adjusting the deeming rates? Fifthly, why does the minister think it is fair for pensioners that he won't adjust the deeming rate, even though interest rates are at record lows? That is the key question. Finally, has the minister done anything to advocate for United Kingdom pensioners who are failing to get fair indexation on their pensions?

There is a pattern with the Turnbull government. There is a pattern when it comes to age pensioners, and there is a pattern when it comes to the most vulnerable people in our community, and it is not a good pattern. It seems that the answer is: 'People can just go and get a job.' Not everyone is capable of doing that, and I think the minister rightly understands that. I want to put on record that the Labor Party respects pensioners. It respects them because they have spent their entire lives working and paying taxes, and it is their right within the social security system of this country to be treated fairly at the end of their working life.

Somehow this government takes the position that it wants our seniors to work until they're 70! It's just ludicrous. How can someone who has worked in the construction industry, for example, or as a cleaner—someone who has had hard physical labour their whole life—be expected to work until they're 70? You wouldn't do it, and I'm not going to be doing it. There should not be an expectation that seniors have to work until their 70s. Pensioner concessions have been cut. The pension assets test is being changed, which will not benefit most pensioners. Appallingly, as I said, the government has tried three times to cut the clean energy supplement, which—with increasing utility prices, particularly electricity—is so crucial to so many people on low incomes. There is no denying that; it is clearly on the record. The agenda of this government is still to do that. The government is attacking people who have spent their entire lives giving to this country, who have spent their entire lives working and paying taxes, and who are finally moving into the age of the age pension. This is an attack on them. (Time expired)

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