Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bruce for that question. I'll talk to the assistant minister, and we will get back to you. The government will have more to say on pricing in the coming days—that is imminent.

I ask the member for Bruce if he could pass on my best wishes to the member for Jagajaga, and I hope that she gets better soon. Please, I would like no-one to get the impression that I don't in any way have a very good working relationship with her. I find her absolutely professional in the way she goes about her job. I would like to put to rest any idea of intimidation or anything like that, and I wish her well.

I thank the member for Petrie for his question. He is absolutely right that this year's budget was all about benefitting pensioners and, in particular, about the pension work bonus, which gives greater flexibility for our pensioners to do additional work. For a single pensioner it means an extra $50 a fortnight, so they can now earn up to $300 a fortnight, which is incredibly important. The Treasurer was very keen about making sure there's flexibility, so they don't have to earn it over 52 weeks of the year but can earn it in a period. Basically, they can boost their retirement income by up to $17,800. That is really important, and I thank him for the interest he has in this issue and also for his strong advocacy for pensioners. He knows how important it is that we are respectful of pensioners and retirees. He's absolutely right. The idea that you would hit retirees and by extension some pensioners with a tax of $5 billion a year beggars belief for us on this side. We cannot comprehend how any government could do that. It will impact his electorate; it will impact mine. As a matter of fact, the constituents of every member of parliament will be impacted by this.

Can I go to some previous questions which I didn't get around to answering. One was to do with the indexation of UK pensions, which has been a longstanding issue of concern for the Australian government. So that the shadow minister for human services is aware, I've been advised that in the margins of CHOGM the Prime Minister raised the UK policy on pension indexation directly with the UK Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Theresa May MP. This is an issue which both sides of government have raised over many years, and we will continue to do so at the highest level because it's incredibly important. On deeming rates, we will continue to monitor returns from financial investments and the appropriateness of deeming rates. When it comes to rebalancing the pension, can I just advise the shadow minister that 90 per cent of pensioners are either better off or have had no change to their pension under this measure. When it comes to raising the pension age, I really do think the best way to answer this question is to quote from a media release which was put out by the member for Lilley and the member for Jagajaga in 2009 where they said:

Increasing the age pension age is a responsible reform to meet the challenge of an ageing population and the economic impact it will have for all Australians.

I put that quote on the record because I think it's an incredibly important one in this debate. Can I say to the member for Gilmore, when it comes to the NDIS she's absolutely right that this is an incredibly important reform. It's transformational. Already we're seeing 160,000 participants in the scheme, 40,000 of whom have never received services before from the Commonwealth or state governments. Over the coming months 750 additional staff will be brought on board as the rollout continues to ramp up.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 18:34

See this speech in context