Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

That was a shameful decision late at night in this parliament to cut the pension to around 370,000 pensioners by as much as $12,000 a year by changing the pension assets test. The following year we saw attempts to cut the pension to around 190,000 pensioners as part of a plan to limit overseas travel for pensioners to six weeks, something of enormous concern to the multicultural communities that I represent and I know, Deputy Speaker Claydon, to the communities that you represent as well. Again in 2016, they tried to cut the pension for over 1.5 million Australians through scrapping the energy supplement for new pensioners.

Pensioners will always be better off under Labor. The pensioners that I'm proud to represent know this. I want to say this to them: I can't wait to be able to spend time with you again as our city safely opens up and to hear directly from you about your concerns. I know that older Australians, particularly older Australians from migrant backgrounds, are the ones who've found it most difficult to remain connected to political life through the pandemic. I know how important those meetings are both as ways through which you receive information but much more importantly as ways when you can give me and my state colleagues guidance about the things that matter to you. On these issues, I've heard your concerns loud and clear and so has the entire federal Labor Party.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the plight of so many elderly pensioners in aged care during the pandemic. In Scullin, the outbreak at Epping Gardens has taken the lives of 38 people and infected more than 120 residents, along with many staff members. This was a tragedy and my heart goes out to the families and loved once personally affected by it. It's a tragedy that will leave a lasting scar on the communities of Melbourne's north for many years to come. Let me just say this: it is a disgrace that the Morrison government has still not acted fully on the interim recommendations of the royal commission. It's an absolute disgrace that does not do justice to those people.

I want to speak very briefly on the changes in this bill affecting paid parental leave. The bill is adjusting how someone qualifies for PPL. To be eligible, someone must satisfy the work test, and the existing work test requires a person to have worked 10 of the 13 months prior to the birth or adoption of a child and at least 330 hours in that 10-month period. The concern has been that during the pandemic families would miss out on PPL because of job losses or having their hours reduced, making them ineligible and leaving them perhaps $15,000 worse off. So Labor called for the government to temporarily suspend the work test as early as April this year so that families wouldn't miss out. In June, we moved amendments in the Senate for the work test to be suspended. But, again, the Morrison government voted this down.

I've talked a lot about certainty—that is, the certainty Australians deserve to get through this crisis and to rebuild. That applies here. Families need certainty about their capacity to access paid parental leave during these challenging times. It is disappointing, to say the very least, that it has taken the government this long to make this adjustment. It's worth noting that next year marks ten years since the Rudd-Gillard Labor government introduced Australia's first paid parental leave scheme under Jenny Macklin, the former member for Jagajaga. It's a scheme that has been a major policy success story. It's something that deserves to be recognised. It has transformed lives and helped boost workforce participation—one of those three Ps that will drive our economy forward in the recovery.

In conclusion, Labor supports the measures outlined in the bill. They're measures that Labor has been advocating for from the beginning of the pandemic earlier this year—a time that feels much, much longer ago. But now it's just eight weeks until Christmas. Around one million Australians, relying on the coronavirus supplement, need certainty, not an unfair cut. That is why we are moving this vital amendment to extend the supplement until March, in line with JobKeeper, and require the government to announce a permanent, just increase in the JobSeeker payment. I hope government members are listening to their communities and their conscience and will support that amendment.

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