Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate the member for Mayo for putting this issue on the agenda of the Federation Chamber and highlighting in the motion the fact that many pensioners in Australia are living just above or below the poverty line and struggling to make ends meet. A combination of the changes that this government has made to pension taper rates has seen up to 200,000 Australians kicked off the pension. The inertia that the government's shown on deeming rates has meant that many are struggling with cash in their bank balances. Of course, the government's lack of an energy policy means that many pensioners who are struggling to make ends meet can't switch on their heaters during the winter months or their air conditioners during the summer.

I congratulate the member for Mayo for raising this issue of pensioners because they're often forgotten by this government. For years the Liberals and Nationals have been short-changing pensioners with inflated deeming rates. It's been these reckless and deliberate policies that have pushed too many pensioners in Australia into poverty.

The Reserve Bank cut interest rates five times between May 2015 and July 2019, with the cash rate now at a record low of just one per cent, but the Liberal-National government didn't announce a single change in the deeming rates during this time, setting them as high as 3.25 per cent. This has meant that thousands of people were pushed onto the part pension or have received a lower rate—

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The Liberals and Nationals had to be dragged kicking and screaming to make even a small change to the deeming rates, with pensioner groups and Labor running a campaign to make them fairer. It is no surprise to see once again the failure of the Liberals and Nationals to recognise the pressure on pensioners and their budgets. Despite promising no cuts to the pension in 2013, after cutting the pension in 2014, the government's track record, in doing what they've done, has been the opposite. In 2014, the Liberals and Nationals tried to cut pension indexation, a cut that would've meant that pensioners would have been forced to live on $80 a week less within 10 years. In that same 2014 budget, the government slashed $1 billion from pensioners and as much as $12,000 a year by changing the assets test. In 2016 the Liberals and Nationals tried to cut around $190,000 from pensioners as part of their plan to limit overseas travel for pensioners to six weeks. Labor, of course, opposed all of these reforms.

For two years the LNP government planned to scrap the energy supplement and cut the age pension for 1.5 million pensioners. For four years, this government tried to raise the pension age to 70. The government has cut and outsourced over 2,500 jobs from Centrelink—the people who on a regular basis provide support and advice to pensioners, particularly those pensioners who are unable to access the internet and find using the phone service frustrating. Having that face-to-face service through Centrelink for pensioners is vitally important for their welfare and their living standards, and this has coincided with a blowout in call waiting times to Centrelink and waiting times for the pension. And it's now too hard to access the pension, with many people waiting many months for payments and some, unfortunately, just giving up.

Labor fought each and every one of these changes to the pension that have made life harder for many elderly Australians. They shows that the Morrison government's history of changes to the pension have meant that many pensioners in Australia are struggling. Although they have acted in respect of the deeming rate, it certainly is too little, too late, with the upper rate still as high as three per cent when we know that the cash rate is now down at one per cent. So, once again, the government refuses to listen to those pensioners that are struggling.

And then, on top of that, add the fact that many pensioners tell us that they can't afford to switch on their heaters at night during winter because they can't afford the exorbitant electricity prices that have been forced upon them by this government's inaction and the fact that, after six years, they still don't have an energy policy for Australia. It doesn't matter who leads this LNP government, cuts to the pension are part of their DNA. Labor will continue to stand up for pensioners, hold this government to account on deeming rates and fight to keep more Australian pensioners out of poverty.

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