Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Workforce Incentive) Bill 2022. I am very pleased to be speaking on this bill today because it really reflects and recognises the importance that this government places on our older Australians and the high respect that we hold them in. As members of this House, we would all have the privilege and honour of representing communities with older Australians. These are the people who built our nation. They've worked hard, raised their families, paid their taxes. They should be treated with dignity and respect, and that's exactly what the Albanese government is doing. We understand our older Australians and are committed to restoring dignity to them.

The fact is that it's only our government who will protect the pension, who'll support those in aged care, who'll provide cheaper medicines for our seniors and who'll also provide a means to be able to earn more whilst not impacting their pension. We know how important that is. Our commitment to providing older Australians with real support includes a whole suite of measures, one of which is our workforce incentive, or the one-off increase in the work bonus income bank. We want to ensure that our older Australians have the option—if they wish to or they want to—to take up work or work some more, and this bill will ensure that our older Australians have the option to take up shorter-term or intermittent work or that older Australians remain in the workforce without fear of losing access to their pension. We know that is a major concern, and that's why we're acting.

We also know that our seniors, our older Australians, have a wealth of experience. They have highly skilled working backgrounds, and that's why our one-off income credit will act as an incentive for them—for those who do want to work—whilst also allowing an immediate boost to the supply of workers. We know this will help in addressing the skills shortage as well. Of course, we know that throughout the country, particularly in regional areas like mine, it is indeed a real challenge. I know from speaking to many seniors in my area that they're very pleased with the government acting so swiftly on this. They think it's really important for those who would like to do some of that occasional short-term work but also for local businesses, which have really been very positive about this move and the difference that it will make, particularly in terms of the extent of the skills crisis that we see and particularly given how much more those of us in regional Australia are feeling it.

The government's Jobs and Skills Summit, which was held earlier this year, saw this government come together with all the states and territories, businesses, community leaders and unions to discuss ways that we could boost the labour supply in order to meet the current shortages. I really commend the Prime Minister and the Treasurer for hosting the really important Jobs and Skills Summit. That's the approach of this government: working with people right across the board to get outcomes. That's exactly what happened; from that summit there were indeed many positive outcomes, and one of the outcomes was that we announced that we'd give older Australians the option to work and earn more. We've heard that from older Australians and from many of their advocacy groups as well because we listen to what people in the community are saying and work with them. So, as I said, we provided this, and now, through the one-off increase in their work bonus income bank, pensioners will be able to earn additional $4,000 without losing any of their pension.

The bill strengthens existing incentives for people over age pension age to take up work or increase the number of hours they work if they want to do so. It's an option that they have if that's what they choose to do. At present, only around three per cent of age pensioners earn income from employment. By providing these incentives and providing opportunities to work more without penalty, even a marginal increase in the number of older Australians in work will benefit those who do want to work and, of course, our local businesses and local economies. It will assist so much. The $4,000 increase will be added to the work bonus income bank of pensioners. Specifically, this will increase the amount pensioners can earn from $7,800 to $11,800 before their pension is reduced. The one-off increase will give our older Australians the option to both work and keep more of their money, and that's what they've been telling us that they want to do.

The work bonus allows pensioners over the pension age to earn an extra $300 per fortnight from work before the income test is applied. The combination of the income-free area work bonus means, for example, a single age pensioner with no other income could earn up to $490 per fortnight from work before their payments began to reduce. Pensioners are able to build up any unused amount of the $300 fortnightly concession in a work bonus income bank, which is also vitally important. This amount can be used to exempt future earnings from the pension income test. It means that a pensioner could choose to do intermittent or seasonal work and still benefit from the work bonus. It's designed to fit the requirements of our seniors and what they have told us they need in terms of their work commitments or the opportunities that they would have.

As I said, from commencement, age pensioners, disability support pensioners and carer payment recipients over age pension age, as well as certain veterans entitlement recipients over qualifying age, will have $4,000 credited to their work bonus income bank. I know many in my community and throughout the country have really welcomed this as a very positive step by the government to provide those incentives for older Australians.

The second key part of the bill means that those on the pension do not have to reapply for payments for up to two years if their employment income exceeds the income limit. Currently, the case is that age pensioners with employment income whose total income exceeds the income limit have their pension cancelled after 12 weeks. Instead, what will actually happen now is that their payment will be suspended for a period of up to two years. If during the two-year period their income is at a level where it can become payable again, an abridged process would assist their return to the age pension. That is a much more reasonable and feasible way to move forward for our seniors. It is a much better way to do it. It also corrects the current system, where social security payments were cancelled after 12 weeks of exceeding the income limit, with people having to start the process again when they were eligible. Having this abridged version makes it a lot easier. What is really important is that, to further remove barriers for older Australians re-entering the workforce, pensioners will also retain access to their concession card. It is vitally important for them to be able to have this card to access so many services. We have listened and we have acted.

We are delivering on our commitment to support older Australians right across the board and we've been doing that since day one of the election of the Albanese Labor government. Firstly, we had the pension increase. It was the largest indexation increase to pension payments in more than 12 years, and it was very much welcomed by pensioners. Since we've been in government, as I said, we have already ensured that more of our older Australians can gain access to the seniors healthcare card allowing eligible seniors and self-funded retirees to receive a number of beneficial health concessions. This has been very widely welcomed, I know, in my electorate and, I'm sure, in electorates around the country, with so many more people being eligible to receive that seniors health card, which is so vitally important. It has been raised by many people in my community for a very long period of time.

We're also delivering cheaper prescription medicines. We know that the maximum cost of medications on the PBS has doubled since 2000, so we're ensuring that millions of Australians will pay 30 per cent less for PBS scripts—again, a major concern among our seniors. In addition, we've introduced legislation to help incentivise our pensioners to downsize by reducing the impact of selling or buying a new home. This measure will allow more time for recipients to complete the process of purchasing their new home without the proceeds of selling a home being subject to the assets test. Of course, the Albanese government is committed to freezing deeming rates at current levels for two years until the end of June 2024—another issue that had been raised with us by seniors.

Through our successful repeal of the cashless debit card, we have put a stop to the former government's harsh plans to force age pensioners onto that card. We have shown time and time again how committed we are to restoring dignity for our older Australians and actually delivering for them. We are doing that through so many measures, whether it be on the health front, the work bonus or providing incentives to downsize. We listen to our seniors and we act. I must say, after hearing some of the speakers in relation to this bill, that they had nine years and they didn't do anything. They didn't actually do anything. It has taken our government to correct a decade of Liberal-Nationals waste, mismanagement and incompetence. That is what we saw.

In fact, the opposition has no credibility when it comes to supporting our pensioners because we saw here time and time again that they routinely made cuts to the pension, froze the pension rates and short-changed pensioners with their deeming rates. We saw that on many occasions. In fact, Deputy Speaker Georganas, you and many members of this House would remember in 2015 that the Liberals and Nationals did a deal with the Greens to cut the pension for around 370 older Australians by changing the pension assets test. The pensioners certainly remember it. I remember the anger in the community at the time about the fact that that happened. So, when we see any of these members of the opposition standing up today to lecture us, I say: 'They had nine years. When did they do it?' They didn't. Instead what they did was make it harder for our pensioners through their cuts, which we constantly saw.

We are committed to constantly helping our older Australians whenever we can. Indeed, in all of those measures that I spoke about, and particularly in the area of aged care, we have acted so swiftly because it's only an Albanese Labor government that supports our older Australians. They were let down by a decade of mismanagement and waste under the former government, but we are committed to fixing that. The bill before us today works to support—and to better support—those seniors who do want to work. It gives them greater capacity to work and also expands the workforce at a time of labour shortages, and we know how vital it is to do that. We have listened to our older Australians. We always have. We've always fought for them and, since being in government, we have continued to deliver. These workforce incentives are the latest measure that we are absolutely committed to delivering. If pensioners do want to work more they can, and their pension will not be impacted.

I commend the bill to the House.

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