Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. What financial benefits have older Australians gained under the federal government? Are there any threats to the financial wellbeing of older Australians?

Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Since this government came to power we have focused very much on families and older Australians, who have contributed to the wellbeing and the financial strength of this country. Even though many are now in their retirement years, they still deserve to share in the wealth and the bounty that this country continues to enjoy under a Howard-Costello government. It was one of the earliest commitments that the Treasurer made, back in 1996 I think it was, when he linked the pension to 25 per cent of MATWE, male average total weekly earnings. In practical terms what that now means is that, as a result of that decision, a single aged pensioner today has $66.20 per fortnight more in their pension pay packet than they would have had otherwise had the Labor Party policy continued. For a pensioner couple it is $111.40. That is a tremendous bonus for those families and those couples in their older years. From 20 September this year they can expect a further down payment on what the Commonwealth government has been able to achieve through good economic management. As a result of the halving of the pension taper rates, from 20 September this year a single retiree homeowner could have an additional $177,000 of assets before losing the age pension.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A very good reform.

Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A very good reform, as the Treasurer points out. A couple could have $294,000 of additional assets. These are very practical measures which help our older Australians. Let us just have a look at how much they could earn today before they pay tax. As a result of the senior Australians tax offset these Australians pay no tax up to an annual income for a single person of $25,867 and $43,360 for a pensioner couple. That is as a result of the initiatives of the Howard government and good economic management. That is not unlike the average Australian family. The average Australian family with two children pays no net tax today before $50,800 of income. That is an unbelievable achievement when you consider that, just a short 11 years ago, for every dollar earned over $50,000 they were paying 48½c in the dollar.

I am asked if there are any risks to this and if this is under threat. The reality is that you cannot provide the bounty of this nation to our older Australians if you run deficits. The opposition ran deficits on nine out of the 13 occasions they had the opportunity to sit here on the Treasury benches. They continued to run up debt. They did not reward older Australians in this country for the contribution they had made in tougher times to this nation’s wellbeing.

I guess you do not think too much about older Australians on those incomes if you really genuinely believe that someone on over $200,000 is a struggler, as the Courier Mail reported on 30 April. The article says:

Households earning more than $200,000 a year have been identified as Kevin Rudd’s “strugglers” and will carry him to electoral victory.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition: what about the pensioners? What about the self-funded retirees? What about the bonus the Howard government has just been able to deliver them so they can also benefit from these measures? I remind the member for Melbourne and all of our senior Australians, as we have not had a clarification at this point, of what he said in this place when last in government:

We should have an inheritance tax or some tax of that nature.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Lindsay was big on that.

Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, he was big on that. He continued:

We are one of the few major countries that does not have some form of taxation for these circumstances—

get this—

where tax is the most equitable, the most efficient to collect and the least painful for individual taxpayer.

That is what you are going to get from a finance minister in a Labor Rudd government. Those are the sorts of beliefs that they hold dearly, not the struggling pensioners who are being rewarded by the good economic management of the Howard-Costello government.