Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware that, as a result of his pension indexation cuts, the chief executive of the Council on the Ageing was quoted recently as saying:

… the real value of the pension will fall dramatically over time.

Will the Prime Minister now admit that he has cut the pension and stop deceiving pensioners?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under this government, the pension goes up every six months, every year. The pension goes up—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am so pleased to have them waving around the budget, because the budget that they wave around—

Mr Watts interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Gellibrand will leave, under standing order 94(a).

The member for Gellibrand then left the chamber.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

is the budget that corrects that debt and deficit disaster that they created. The budget that they wave around is the budget that fixes the debt and deficit disaster that they created. They have the solution to their problem in their hands! That is what they do. They have got it in their hands.

A government member: If only they could read!

If only they could read, indeed! And, if they could read, if only they could understand! Understanding, I fear, is lacking from members opposite. They have ears that do not hear—

Ms Butler interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Griffith will leave, under standing order 94(a).

The member for Griffith then left the chamber.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

they have eyes that do not see and they have brains that do not work. That is the problem. Let me repeat, for the benefit of the shadow minister who asked the question: pensions go up every six months—

Ms Owens interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Parramatta will desist and is warned!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

every single year under this government. But, from September 2017, after the next election, they will go up with the same rate of indexation that the member who asked the question thought was fair for other social security benefits. It is exactly the same indexation that, when she was the minister, she thought was right and fair and proper for social security benefits. If it was fair for the family tax benefit, it is fair for other benefits. If it was fair for the former government to bring in that particular form of indexation, it is surely fair for this government to do exactly the same thing.