George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Supporting Retirement Incomes) Bill 2018. This bill makes a number of changes announced in the budget last year. These changes are to help support incomes for Australians in retirement.

The first change outlines how pooled lifetime income streams will be assessed for social security means testing. The new rules taking effect from 1 July from next year will mean that 60 per cent of payments for a pooled lifetime income stream will be treated as income and 60 per cent of the initial purchases amount will be assessed under the assets test. After five years, or when the person reaches the life expectancy of a 65-year-old male, currently 84—whichever is longer—the assets test will assess only 30 per cent of the initial purchase amount.

A second change this amendment will make refers to the work bonus. Currently pensioners can supplement their pension by up to $250 a fortnight without affecting their pension. This amendment raises that threshold by $50 to $300.

The third change extends the Pension Loans Scheme to all older Australians with securable real estate. The current scheme, which is effectively a type of reverse mortgage, is only available to part-rate pensioners and their partners and some self-funded retirees.

But while these are positive changes, pensioners, especially self-funded retirees, have a very uncertain future ahead of them if the government changes. That's because they would face the threat of Labor's retirement tax if Labor were to form government next year. Earlier this year, some genius in the Labor Party dreamt up a new way to steal people's money. They figured out that pensioners and self-funded retirees had it too easy, apparently. The party thought they weren't being taxed enough, so they created this special tax for older people, a retiree tax. What they've designed is blatant theft. Labor promised to raid $59 billion on imputation credits that retirees earn on their savings.

Most people are not across how imputation credits work, so Labor is trying to pull the wool over their eyes by dressing it up as something that it is not. Labor claims that the government is handing out money to retirees. They are saying we are handing out money to retirees. The truth is the government is simply returning money that it has already taken off retirees that it should not have taken off them. The truth is the government accepts that they have taken too much money off those retirees. They have taken more tax than those retirees have to pay and are liable to pay. Imputation credits are a means of avoiding double taxation. They are an acknowledgement that tax has already been paid and if too much tax has been paid, more than required by the law, then the excess amount is returned to the individual. That is what we do for all individuals who lodge a tax return and are found to have paid more tax than what they were required to. But Labor wants to put a stop to those returns going to retirees.

When you see Labor going after money like that, it should be a concern to any voter who earns a wage and pays taxes, because if your employer deducts more tax than they should, or if you claim deductions in your tax return, Labor has flagged that they don't want to give you your money back. Once they've got your money in their grubby little hands they will never give it back. It doesn't matter if are you a worker or if you are retired, Labor will find a way to steal your money. Australians will need to ask themselves a question at the next election. Retirees will need to ask themselves, 'Will my vote enable Labor to steal money from me?' Workers should ask if their vote will help Labor steal money from mum and dad's retirement incomes. Young Australians should ask themselves if their vote will help Labor steal from nanna or pop.

I hear laughter over there. The Tasmanian member laughing should know that 20,000 Tasmanians are going to be robbed of money. Twenty thousand Tasmanian retirees will be robbed from this tax. He shouldn't be laughing. He should be hanging his head in shame for trying to rob 20,000 Tasmanian retirees. If an individual robbed nanna or pop they would go to jail and they would be reviled by the community for such a disgusting, low act.

With the bill that we are debating today the government is working to support the income of retirees. We're trying to ensure that retirees have enough income to pay for the necessities of life. The Liberal-National government understands that many retirees are often on low incomes and those incomes are fixed incomes, because of retirement plans they've put themselves in. Despite presenting themselves as a party that helps people on low incomes, and they are anything but, the Labor Party is actually promising to rob low-income retirees with this retiree tax that they are proposing. They want to force our seniors below the poverty line. The Labor Party wants to see the 20,000 retirees and pensioners in the electorates in Tasmania making tough decisions like whether to pay the power bill or whether to eat every night. They are the kinds of decisions they want. They want seniors to give away their pets, because they can't afford the pet food and they can't afford the vet.

I met with a constituent in my electorate, Mr Arnold Fanning, who is very worried about how he and his wife are going to survive under a Shorten Labor government. The Fannings have worked hard all their life. They've saved for their retirement, with fixed plans. As a result of the sacrifices that they've made their entire life, they've funded their own retirement; they do not rely on government support. In fact, they pay private health insurance to avoid being a burden on the taxpayer. However, if Labor's retiree tax came into play then the only way the Fannings could make ends meet would be to dump their private health insurance. The consequences of that decision for the government and for taxpayers would be another elderly couple accessing the taxpayer-funded public health system. There would not be a net benefit to the government under that scenario—quite possibly the opposite. With their retiree and pensioner tax, Labor would rob seniors of their dignity and of their freedom to choose their health providers.

I refer to this unfair policy of Labor's as a retiree and pensioner tax because it will affect both. The initial backlash to this ill-thought-out plan caused Labor to exempt pensioners, apparently. But what they've actually done is exempt only the people who were pensioners at that moment in time, because they wanted to take away the sting. But others who began or will begin accessing the age pension after that announcement will be subject to the same robbery and theft as self-funded retirees are going to go through. So, pensioners, make no mistake, Labor will tax pensioners under this retiree tax. After exempting some pensioners from this unfair tax, Labor now tries to paint the victims, as the member for Hinkler just said, as 'typically wealthy retirees', but almost all, 97 per cent, of the elderly victims of this retiree tax will be individuals who have taxable incomes below $87,000; 84 per cent of the potential victims of this retiree tax are on taxable incomes below $37,000; and more than half of them have taxable incomes of less than $18,200.

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