Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for Goldstein, it's a privilege to be able to follow the previous speaker, and that is because he is probably public enemy No. 2 of pensioners and retirees in Australia. He's only followed, of course, by another member, the former shadow Treasurer, who made a deliberate and malicious attack on the retirement savings and income of a million Australians before the last election. To have them come into this chamber and get up to deceive, as far as I'm concerned, the public about their proposition and objective, when, in reality, what they have done at every point is sought to raid the income and retirement savings of a million Australians, is preposterous.

The reality is that Australia, of course, has quite a complex tax and transfer system because we understand the importance of making sure that people have dignity and security in their retirement. We understand that people at all stages, particularly the vulnerable stages of life, need to get the support and assistance to be able to live with a sense of dignity and purpose, but we also encourage people to save and put money away for their future. We recognise that responsibility is the core of what makes this great nation great, and if people take more responsibility they'll be more successful into the future.

This government, at every point, has taken practical and prudent measures to make sure that Australian retirees and pensioners can get the assistance and the support that they need. That's why, when there was a half-a-percent drop across two months of interest rates at the start of this year, we adjusted the deeming rate to make sure that retirees and pensioners would not be left substantially out of pocket. Against the backdrop of making sure we honoured our election commitment to deliver a budget surplus, we've made sure that people have enough money in their wallets to be able to go out and live their lives. We have taken prudent and practical measures to make sure that we adjust the deeming rate to recognise the changing economic circumstances before us.

The best thing that we can do to make sure that pensioners and retirees don't depend on adjustments to deeming rates is to make sure that there's strong economic growth so that they get the money back through dividends from their shares, if they have them, and make sure that the budget is healthy and in surplus so that we can fund a pension for Australia to meet people's expectations so that there's no need for an adjustment of the deeming rate in the first place.

Compare that to the proposition the Labor Party took to the last election, when they turned around to Australian retirees and said, 'We're not going to reward you for your sacrifice and your savings. We're going to raid and take away your overpaid tax and keep it for ourselves, because we don't trust you or that you understand how best to live your lives. We don't believe there should be any reward for that sacrifice.' Before the election they ran a malicious and deceitful campaign that said that people on low incomes wouldn't be impacted. Yet post the election we know the Leader of the Opposition has now accepted and acknowledged that they got it wrong; many low-income Australians were going to lose a third of their incomes.

After 18 May, a great sense of relief was felt in this country by those millions of Australian retirees who woke up the next day and knew that on 1 July they weren't going to have a third of their income stolen from them overnight by a Labor Party government. That's the sense of relief that people had from the election of the coalition government. It was not just relief that we'd be in the best position to support and assist people with adjustments to deeming rates because we're running a healthy budget position against the backdrop of an economy in its 28th year of uninterrupted economic growth but also relief from the constant fear, the elephant in the room, the discussion around all the bowls clubs, Rotary clubs, Probus clubs and everywhere else in this country: the risk of a Shorten Labor government.

What have we heard in the past 48 hours? Their national president has been saying they didn't get it wrong and they've got to go back and hit the retirement savings of a million Australians once again. Some of us won't sit down and take this lightly. Some of us are going to stand up, stare this down and fight every step of the way for the rights of Australians to be able to stand on their own two feet, preserve their dignity, preserve their sacrifice, preserve their lifestyle and make sure they're able to stand up against the malicious attacks of the Australian Labor Party.

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