Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I say from the outset that I support all of those on this side who have spoken before me, particularly in terms of their sentiments about our senior Australians, always remembering that these are the people who built our nation. They worked hard, they raised their families, they paid their taxes and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and they also deserve to be able to access services when they need them—all things they're not getting from the Morrison government.

Labor have said we will support the bill before the House, the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Portability Extensions) Bill 2021, and I support the amendments moved by the member for Barton—namely, that these changes to the bill are necessary due to the tens of thousands of Australians who remain stranded overseas, including many Australian pensioners; Australian pensioners stranded overseas have been let down by this government due to delays in the vaccine rollout and the lack of specialist quarantine facilities; and we're calling on the government to do more to bring those stranded Australian pensioners home, by accelerating the rollout and having those quarantine facilities in place. Our amendments also call on the government to not cut the pension.

As we've said, whilst we support the bill, we don't support the Liberals' and Nationals' relentless, sustained attacks on our pensioners over the last eight years. Whether it's the cuts to pensions, changes to the assets test or the expansion of the cashless welfare card, this is a government that Australians just do not trust.

This bill seeks to make some administrative changes in terms of pension portability, and we support this because the rate of pension available to pensioners who travel or live overseas needs to be looked at, and the legislation seeks to address areas that may have been outside a pensioner's control. So having changes to that portability is vitally important. And it's important, of course, in the context of the pandemic and the many challenges that has created. Many of us have been contacted by those stranded overseas, including many of our pensioners.

Of course, the government's consistent bungling of the vaccine rollout has created this situation. The government's absolute refusal to have dedicated quarantine facilities means we're in this situation. We've consistently called for the rollout to happen—it's just been consistently bungled. We've also called for those specialist quarantine facilities, but, due to the arrogance of the Prime Minister, they just won't do that. If we had these in place, we perhaps wouldn't be in this situation. So we'll continue to call upon the government to do that. This is the government's responsibility—vaccine rollout and quarantine facilities. We've seen so many Australians stranded overseas in the pandemic, as we've said, particularly our pensioners. As it stands with this bill, it seeks to extend some arrangements so there is greater discretion in terms of extending that portability in particular circumstances.

As I've said, our seniors and our pensioners have worked hard and contributed all their lives, and they deserve respect and dignity. When Labor was in government, we did increase the pension by $30 a week. But the fact is over the past eight years the government has, time and time again, tried to cut—or has actually cut—the pension. We saw in August last year the government was caught out on its pension freeze for 2.5 million pensioners. We fought this cruel pension freeze because the reality is, as we know, pensioners plan for their twice yearly indexation. One is on 20 March and the other is on 20 September. The Morrison government's cruel freeze took place in September, and they made pensioners wait until October, until the budget, before announcing any kind of relief. This only came after intense pressure, because they were caught out with this pension freeze. The government then backed down and announced two one-off payments for pensioners of $250. One was in November and the other in February.

Of course, the government have tried to short-change pensioners through deeming rates as well. Deeming rates are used to determine how much pensioners can actually earn from their assets, typically their savings, for the purpose of determining their eligibility under the income test for the pension. The upper deeming rate is 2.25 per cent and the lower rate is 0.25 per cent. Of course, with the cash rate nearing zero per cent, it's difficult to see how pensioners could safely earn 2.25 per cent on their savings. So, with the government deeming pensioners to earn more than what they really are, pensioners are in fact receiving less for their pension. It's another example of pensioners being short-changed by the government's unrealistic and unreasonable pension deeming rates.

One of the biggest issues that pensioners continue to raise with me are their concerns about the Morrison government's cashless welfare card. Pensioners across the country know that the Prime Minister and the Liberals and Nationals want to expand the cashless welfare card to all pensioners right across the nation. These people know that if the Morrison government is re-elected they will force all pensioners onto the cashless welfare card, and this plan will put 80 per cent of their pension on a card that will limit what they can spend and where they can spend their own money. Under the Liberals and Nationals, all pensioners could soon be saying goodbye to cheap food and drinks at their local club, pub or RSL, or saying goodbye to being able to take out cash for their grandchildren on their birthdays or at Christmas time. Even buying a simple lotto ticket will be banned under this system. The fact is this plan of forcing all pensioners onto the cashless welfare card is insulting, demeaning and downright wrong.

We know the Morrison government's plans about this because they keep talking about it. They keep saying they want to make it universal. The minister says, 'Let's have a conversation about making it universal.' We've had many, many government MPs talk about how they want to expand it. We know it's on their agenda. Most importantly, pensioners know it's on their agenda. Right across the country, they are speaking out about this unfair plan. Pensioners really have a right to be very, very anxious about this, because the government's actually got a working group with the banks about their plan to make it universal and force all pensioners onto it. We saw the government signal in their recent legislation about putting income management in place for pensioners. They want to do it and put people onto this privatised card. As the government prepares for the national rollout of this pensioner welfare card, they've already blocked the cashless card at many pubs, RSLs and clubs across the country. Make no mistake, they are preparing to roll this out across the nation.

Labor will scrap the cashless welfare card, because pensioners must not be forced onto this nasty, unfair scheme. The fact is Australians should not have their spending controlled by the government—that's the fact. This government's agenda is all about privatising welfare and giving millions to a company to run the cashless welfare card. That is their entire agenda. But pensioners are onto them. They're onto this government and what they're doing.

I would also point out that recently my electorate office received a phone call from a senior ministerial staffer in the Morrison government demanding I take down my Facebook post in relation to the Morrison government's cruel plan to force pensioners onto this cashless welfare card. For the record, I have not and I will not be removing this post. In fact, I will be posting more about this issue. I will continue to speak out every day in every forum about the Morrison government's cruel attack on pensioners, as well as about their cuts to Medicare and the aged-care crisis. I will continue to speak out and I will not be silenced by anyone in the Morrison government, not by any of them or by any of their MPs or their ministers or, indeed, not even the Prime Minister; I will not be silenced when it comes to these important issues.

As I say, Labor stands with our pensioners. We will scrap this cashless welfare card because pensioners should not be forced on to it. But pensioners know you can't trust the Liberals and Nationals after the years of attacks they've had to wear from this government. Let's look at some of the things they've done over that time. Remember, these pensioners do not forget the government's horrendous record on cutting the pension. Why do they keep doing it? It is because they're obsessed with it; they are obsessed in every budget of trying to find another way to cut the pension.

Let's have a look. In 2014 they tried to cut pension indexation, a cut that would have meant pensioners would be forced to live on $80 a week less within 10 years. In 2014 they cut $1 billion from pensioner concessions, which are designed to support and help pensioners with the cost of living, and we know one of the biggest issues for our pensioners is the increases in the cost of living for them. Also this Liberal-National government, in 2014, axed the $900 senior supplement to self-funded retirees receiving the Commonwealth seniors health card. In 2014 they tried to reset deeming rates thresholds, a cut that would have seen half a million part-pensioners made worse off. We all remember in 2015 when the Liberals and Nationals did a deal with the Greens to cut the pension to around 370,000 pensioners by as much as $12,000 a year by changing the pension assets test. We saw those massive changes to the assets test, thanks to the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens—can't trust them at all. Then, with the Liberal-National government in 2016, they tried to cut the pension to around 190,000 pensioners as part of a plan to limit overseas travel to pensioners to six weeks.

The list of these attacks goes on and on. In 2016, again, we also saw them trying to cut the pension for over 1.5 million Australians by scrapping the energy supplement for new pensioners; they just do not give up with their attacks on pensioners. Indeed, in that case, the government's own figures showed this would have left over 500,000 Australians who currently receive a pension or an allowance worse off. Over 10 years, in excess of 1.5 million pensioners would be worse off. Of course, no-one—absolutely no-one—forgets this government has spent five years trying to increase the pension age to 70.

One of the things that those of us on this side of the House are very proud of is that the age pension is very much part of Labor's legacy because we understand how important it is. We've always fought for it. We established it. It was introduced by the Deakin Labor government to ensure that our older Australians could live with dignity. We have always sought to defend it. We increased the age pension. We have fought this government every step of the way and we will continue to fight them at every turn when they try to cut and slash the pension. Anything that impacts our senior Australians, we will always stand with them and always fight for them because all we've ever seen from the Liberals and Nationals are consistent attacks in trying to chip away.

Our senior Australians have had enough. They have just had enough of this government and what they're doing. The prime example of that is their outrage about the government's plans for the cashless welfare card or the pension welfare card and their plans to roll it out for all pensioners. Our senior Australians have said, 'Enough is enough. We've had years and years and years of cuts and now you are going to introduce a card that tells us where we can spend our money, when we can spend it, what we can spend it on.' This is outrageous and insulting. These people have managed their money, lived their lives, paid their taxes, raised their families; they don't need this. It is outrageous to have it rolled out across the country. All those studies have shown how these cards do not work. We have seen so many reports to say they're ineffective and that they should be scrapped. Labor will scrap that because we know, in any format in those trials, they just have not worked.

The government is trying to be sneaky in terms of this rollout. There is heaps of evidence to say they want to make it universal. They want to roll it out. The minister keeps saying it. We've heard a lot of the National Party MPs talk about how: 'This is great. We'll roll it out everywhere'. The fact is they then insert it into legislation about its application for age pensioners as well. We know it's on their agenda. We know they want to do it. Whilst the cashless welfare card exists, the threat is always there that it will go to all pensioners.

The government can lie and attack us and try to silence us. We'll stand with Australian pensioners every step of the way until we get rid of this cashless welfare card, because it is unfair. They can say whatever they want. The government can keep telling untruths about this. We know what their agenda is. It is essentially about privatising welfare. The millions that are going into this company to roll out this privatisation of welfare are quite frankly outrageous. The government should not be privatising welfare. They should not have plans like the cashless welfare card in place.

We will continue to stand with the community, with our pensioners, with our seniors and with all of those who are subjected to the cashless welfare card to scrap that. We will always defend those vulnerable Australians, always making sure we can provide for them. Labor has a long history of doing that, and we will fight this government every single day, right up until the next election. We're standing up for those who need a Labor government to make a real difference in their lives.

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