Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. I remind the minister that pensioners, including those in aged-care facilities like Strathdon Community Centre in Forest Hill and Heritage Gardens in Bayswater North, are telling me what a struggle it has been to pay their bills and keep up with the rising cost of living. Will the minister outline how the government plans to reduce the cost-of-living burden on pensioners and other people on low incomes?

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, may I congratulate you on your elevation to the high office which you occupy. I thank the member for Deakin for his question and, in doing so, can I acknowledge the impressive maiden speech that he made in this place this week and his obvious concern for the constituents of Deakin including the residents of the aged-care homes at Strathdon and Heritage Gardens in his electorate.

The member Deakin asked me about the cost of living. We know that one of the major contributors, one of the major factors, in rising cost-of-living pressures for Australians both young and old is the carbon tax. Whilst the carbon tax remains in place there will be higher costs for ordinary Australians—higher energy costs and higher electricity costs—and that is the reason the government wants to repeal the carbon tax. A repeal of the carbon tax would benefit Australian households by $550 per year. So that is a win for Australians.

But that is not all. This government also proposes to maintain the Household Assistance Package. That means more assistance for 3.2 million pensioners in Australia—280,000 holders of the Commonwealth seniors health card, 1.6 million Australian families, 1 million recipients of allowances from government and, from the first of next year, 300,000 young people. That is not only a win in repealing the carbon tax, that is a win in terms of the retention of the Household Assistance Package. In addition to that, the government's recent decision to reduce the deeming rates benefits some 740,000 pensioners in Australia. So this parliament can do something about the cost-of-living pressures on ordinary Australians including the residents of the aged-care homes in the honourable member for Deakin's electorate. It can do something by respecting the will of the Australian people and abolishing the carbon tax.

In the last parliament the member for Deakin was a member of the Labor Party. In this parliament the member for Deakin sits on the government benches. That is another clear example of the will of the Australian people repeated right across this country on the question of abolishing the carbon tax. Get out of the way of the will of the Australian people. Axe the tax and do something to ease the cost of living for Australians.