Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Western Australia) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Portability Extensions) Bill 2021, is a sad reminder for Australians that the government has failed them. It has left them without a vaccination and it has left them stranded in dangerous and unsafe parts of the world. Without this bill, they would also be left without the financial support which they desperately need right now. That's why Labor supports this bill, but we know that there are huge concerns from the people who this bill affects. People who are trapped because the government has failed to provide them with a vaccine and failed to bring them home deserve so much more from this government.

We can't forget, as the member for Barton has said, that this government cut social security to the bone. It was Labor that gave the largest increase to the pension in more than a century. Over the last eight years, we've seen this government try to cut the pension again and again and again—cut, cut, cut. For more than 20 years, pensioners could expect their pensions to rise as prices rose. That was always something that pensioners could rely on, but not under this government. This government has tried to stop pensioners getting the support they need, freezing their pensions. After pressure from Labor and the community—and pensioners, who don't mind standing up for themselves, because they know that this government won't stand up for them—the government capitulated and gave them two one-off payments. But it's part of a pattern of behaviour from the government when it comes to the pension. The pension payments that we provided to those stuck overseas are more than they would have been had Labor not stood up against this government's mean cuts.

Remember: in 2014, there was the $80 cut from the pension with the removal of indexation; the $900 cut with the axing of the seniors supplement for self-funded retirees; and the $1 billion cut from pensioner concessions. That was just 2014, in the Abbott-Hockey horror budget. But they continued in 2015, because they actually believe in making life harder for pensioners who have worked their entire life. Expecting a secure, stable retirement, pensioners have to worry, every year, about what's going to come from this government in the budget. By changing the assets test, the government cut as much as $12,000 a year for some 370,000 Australians. That wasn't enough. In 2016, they cut the pension for around 190,000 pensioners by limiting their travel period to six weeks, and they cut the pension for around 1.5 million pensioners by scrapping the energy supplement for new pensioners. On the government's own figures, 563,000 Australians were worse off. When it comes to this government and what it might cut, the reality is that anything is possible. After the government has racked up $1 trillion of debt, with no reform plan, I worry that pensioners will be first in the firing line again when this government snaps back to its 'cut, cut, cut' approach to managing the nation's finances.

The government also has a habit of denying things and then, a few weeks later, doing them. I am worried by some very odd and carefully chosen language used by government ministers about the cashless debit card. This card, which has been trialled in a range of communities and has cost the government millions of dollars in terms of its rollout, is now being expanded. We know the minister 'wants to make this mainstream'. Making the cashless debit card—the 'cashless pension card'—mainstream will mean that pensioners lose the flexibility that they deserve in their retirement. Pensioners are worried. I bring the concerns of the pensioners in my electorate into this House. The minister has used some very careful language. The government are so sensitive about this because they know that what they are discussing is wrong. It is disrespectful of pensioners.

Mr Tudge interjecting—

I've got no problem! This government has a problem with pensioners buying a beer. I've got no problem with pensioners buying a beer. They have worked hard, helped build this country and raised their families. If the penalty this government wants to put on pensioners for enjoying their retirement is to restrict their ability to buy a beer or a glass of wine, it is absolutely disgraceful. It is garbage from this government.

We know that older Australians are vulnerable. We know that, when this government talks about expanding the cashless debit card into a cashless pension card, it is something that is of concern to pensioners. This government will now seek to expand this. Think about a stranded pensioner overseas—the people we're trying to help with this legislation. How would a cashless pension card work if you were stuck overseas? Could you use it in the UK? You wouldn't be able to. Could you use it if you were stuck in Indonesia? No. There are huge rollout problems with a cashless pension card, because they have to approve the providers. It's also a huge amount of red tape for businesses in my electorate. Any expansion of the cashless debit card is a huge expansion of red tape for the small businesses in my electorate. Having to go through an approvals process by this government, having to go through—

Ms Collins interjecting—

Mr Tudge interjecting —

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