Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this bill, the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Workforce Incentive) Bill 2022. I'm pleased that the government has listened and chosen to amend the bill to extend the legislation to 31 December 2023. Previously, as we know, it was scheduled to end on 30 June 2023. For those of us in regional electorates, we also know that that, hopefully, gives us just one more harvest where we might incentivise pensioners and make it easier for them to potentially work in the harvest, because this is an incredibly difficult time of the year to get workers in regional Australia.

Providing incentives for older Australians to engage in additional work is a concept that I strongly support and one that I have advocated for, I think some could say, rather vigorously. On the first day of August this year, I moved a notice of motion calling on the government to introduce an opt-in scheme to increase the income test threshold for pensioners with limited savings as an incentive to engage in paid work. This was undertaken after receiving countless requests from constituents for changes and extensive consultation with National Seniors Australia. The message received was very simple, many people who are on the age pension want to work. They might not want to work full-time, but a couple who are travelling might want to do blocks of work. With Australia's unemployment rate historically low at just 3.5 per cent—it is the slowest rate, certainly, in my lifetime—we're effectively in full employment. This is a good thing, but it has created an increasingly tight labour market with high demand for engaging and retaining workers, particularly in the regions. When it's cherry season, when it's apple season, when it's strawberries season we need as many hands as we can possibly get. It becomes incredibly difficult for employers to find and attract staff.

On a weekly basis I am reminded by local businesses desperately looking for staff that this is not just in horticulture and agriculture, this also extends to the care sector as well. In Australia workforce participation rates for people aged 65 years and older are among the lowest in developed nations. We are currently at 14.2 per cent. This compares with the OECD average of 15.3 per cent. Sweden is 19 per cent. The United States is 19.4 per cent. Our New Zealand neighbour is 24.8 per cent, and that's really significant considering we're just across the ditch and yet our percentages are so different, our participation is so different.

Workforce participation among pensioners with limited savings is even lower at just three per cent. The data and anecdotal evidence strongly suggest there is an underutilised workforce available to us. However, older Australians are prematurely leaving critical sectors such as aged care, allied health, teaching and student support, because of the penalty associated with working and the consequence of a reduction in pension entitlements. A serious concern for pensioners is the anxiety and stress caused by dealing with Centrelink every fortnight. This is unnecessarily disincentivising pensioners and their engagement in the workforce.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are 107,000 people aged 60 to 69 who are no longer in the labour force, not retired and not currently employed but wanting to work part-time. But they're not engaging because of the fear of having a debt, the fear of potentially receiving a letter saying, 'We're cutting off your pension.' I am sure many people in here have assisted older people with applying for the pension. This is not an easy process and it takes a long time, so their fear is very real and I understand that.

National Seniors Australia found, in their recent survey, that one in five pensioners would consider re-entering the workforce, and this was prior to the latest inflation and cost-of-living increases. Recent increases to power prices, the projected inflation and the even greater power costs will substantially impact the budgets of all Australians, and particularly pensioners who now have even less money to dispose of.

This bill will give those pensioners who want to work the opportunity to do so without unfair financial penalty. This is so good for regional Australia.

I was hoping that the government would lift the threshold even more because, when older people are travelling around Australia, they're often in their caravan and so they're staying in our regions for a considerable period of time and many of them do want to work. I know that when they do work, whether on mango farms or in the care sector or helping out in the schools, they have the qualifications and they have the knowledge. I just don't think we utilise this wonderful workforce, this wonderful group of people who want to work. The best thing about the region is, if they're saying for months at a time in a particular region—maybe down in my electorate or up in Queensland or over in WA—they spend more of their money back in the region, so they're helping to grow the local economy.

This bill, while I do support it, I think it could go much further. I guess I'm flagging that my advocacy will not stop here. I'm also flagging that I will be supporting the opposition's amendments because I think they're very sensible amendments. We really want to make it as easy as possible for older Australians who still want to be connected to the workforce to be part of helping to remedy the great challenges we're having with respect to workforce shortages at the moment. I'm pleased to support this bill and very pleased that crossbench initiatives such as this are taken up by the government.

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