Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to address a very serious issue of concern in the electorate that I am lucky enough to represent in this place, as well as right around Australia, and that is the Abbott government's decision to make cuts to the age pension and the decision to axe funding for concession card holders, which was announced in last year's budget. Of course we know the promises that the Prime Minister made before the last election. We know that he specifically promised that there would be no cuts and no changes to the pension. But instead they are slashing the current indexation system that helps the pension keep pace with the actual cost of living.

There are very few more disgraceful attacks that can be made than attacks on the people who have worked hard for decades to build this country to be the place that it is today and who have relied upon good faith from this parliament to look after them in their retirement years and when they are vulnerable. We know that, as a result of the indexation cuts that this government has announced, every pensioner in Australia will be worse off under a Liberal government by as much as $80 a week within a decade. This is yet another broken promise by the government, again punishing those who can least afford it.

We know that in last year's budget the government also axed the National Partnership Agreement on Certain Concessions for Pensioner Concession Card and Seniors Card Holders, and I want to talk specifically about the impact that this will have on South Australian pensioners and on the many, many pensioners who I have heard from in my office, who are outraged, upset and shocked at this measure. We know that, as a result, approximately $30 million will be ripped from my home state of South Australia annually for concessions relief funding, $123 million over the next four years. And we know that as a result of this cut, from July this year, concession card holders in South Australia will lose up to $190 per annum. I am deeply concerned about the impacts of these cuts, and I am really appalled by the attack on our community's most vulnerable.

These cuts have placed all sorts of pressures on the South Australian government and also on local governments, and the South Australian Liberals have shown once again that they do not have the backbone to stand up to their federal colleagues to demand that these cuts be reversed and to stand up for the local communities who are set to pay the price for this. We know that, without ongoing funding, the councils of South Australia will no longer be able to provide concessions on council rates, as reported by the Local Government Association of South Australia. We know that, whilst the state government stepped in for a year to fill the gap and to pick up the shortfall of the federal government's cuts, unfortunately pensioners are going to feel the impact of the Abbott government's cuts, and they are going to feel it all too harshly. Ninety-six per cent of the total cost of providing concessions on council rates will be cut as a result of this broken promise.

There was a longstanding agreement with state governments that this funding would continue to June 2016. So, when Liberal members finger-point and blame the state Labor government and local governments for these cuts, as they are doing right across South Australia at the moment, trying desperately to point the blame anywhere else, in reality they have no-one else to blame except the Abbott government and the harsh and cruel budget that they handed down. We know that, when it comes to South Australia, this is a weak and spineless bunch of state and federal Liberal members. We know that, whether it is on Holden—and I know my colleague here knows that only too well—on submarines or now on pensioner concessions, they will not stand up to their federal colleagues. It is time that they started putting South Australia first, as indeed they were elected to do.

My electorate office has been inundated with calls, with emails and with letters expressing people's outrage at these concession cuts. For example, Alexander, who wrote to me from Brompton, said, 'This government continues to look for savings to the budget by penalising those who can least afford it.' Adalbert from Northfield said, 'These concessions are important to pensioners who are already battling against higher costs; many of us are on fixed incomes.' We know that Labor understand the importance of giving dignity to a secure retirement. I understand that pensioners have worked hard all of their lives. They do not deserve this betrayal, and I will continue to stand up for them.