Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge the absolute commitment of the Rudd Labor government to pensioners and its willingness to stand by that commitment, despite the pressures of the global economic crisis. It would have been convenient, some would have seen, for this government to use the global economic crisis as an opportunity to not pass on these increases to pensioners. But this government believes that not only was it important to pass on these increases but it was the right thing to do. I know that pensioners across my electorate of Petrie certainly welcome the announcement made in the budget last night to increase the full rate of the single pension by $32.49 per week and to increase the couple’s pension by $10.14 per week from 20 September 2009.

On the World News Australia website, a pensioner, Mrs Ethel Foyle, is 72 years old and lives alone in the North Brisbane suburb of West Chermside in my electorate. She has said that she is pleased with the increase, as the current pension is just enough for her to scrape by. She says that she requires ‘at least $7,000 a year for things like gas, electricity and rent’. Over 30 per cent of pensioners in North Brisbane are renting. She says there are things she misses out on because she can not afford them. What she says is that, as a Queenslander she is pleased with the government’s handling of the economy so far, and welcomes the extra money granted by the Rudd stimulus cheque late last year. She said:

There were things I needed doing around the house, which have now been done. I bought some Christmas presents for the grandchildren, and that’s basically where the money went, and I’ve got none left.

So she welcomes this increase to the pension. That was obviously on top of the stimulus package that this government delivered to pensioners in the short term last year, when we saw that the pensioners were doing it so tough that we delivered that one-off payment as part of the stimulus package. Now this government has delivered for the long term for pensioners—not just in my electorate of Petrie but across Australia.

I also call on the Queensland government to ensure that all of those pensioners living in public housing, in my electorate and across Queensland, see that full pension increase passed onto them, just as the South Australian government has announced, and not swallowed up with increases to the rent for that public housing. Certainly, that is what pensioners were asking of me last year when I held the Peninsula People’s Forum. All three levels of government, elected representatives, were there in the one place at a public forum to answer any questions. I know the first question was: ‘Would the government increase the pension?’ One of the other questions in that same forum was: ;If you do, will the Queensland government increase our rent in public housing?’

It is an issue where I hope the Queensland government, equally, does the right thing by our pensioners, and certainly those pensioners in Petrie would welcome such an initiative by the Queensland government. But, of course, we have heard of feigned concern by those on the other side that they are concerned about pensioners. We heard it last year and we continue to hear it. I am sure that, if given the opportunity, they would have been out saying, ‘Well, if we had one more year in government, we would have done it.’ But the fact is that, in the 16 months leading up to the election in 2007 while I was campaigning on the ground in Petrie, not once did I hear the Liberal member or the Liberal Party coming out saying that it was proposing an increase to the pension or that it acknowledged the pressures that pensioners were facing at the time.

This government has stepped up and delivered for pensioners. We will continue to support pensioners in the long term with the initiative announced in the budget that was delivered last night by the Treasurer, the Hon. Wayne Swan. In my electorate alone, 21,250 pensioners will benefit by this initiative. I look forward to going out next week and talking with my electorate about this initiative and about all of the initiatives of this government—the fact that we are about jobs for now and nation building for tomorrow. We are about apprenticeships and we are about small business. That is what a responsible government delivers, not just for local communities but for the nation as a whole. As I stated, I congratulate the government for the announcement in relation to the pensions. I congratulate this government, my government, about jobs, apprenticeships and small business. (Time expired)