Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the time that I have been in this place, one of the very great privileges I have enjoyed has been to be able to engage with seniors groups and pensioners groups in the Scullin electorate—groups that show off the diversity of the Scullin electorate. In these 18 months, I have really been struck by the generosity pensioners of Scullin have shown to me in sharing the benefits of their experiences. I have also been struck in recent months by the visceral nature of their response to the cynicism of this mean and tricky government. Pensioners in Scullin remember all too well that election night pledge of no changes to the pension. They remember even more starkly the horror of last year's budget—the budget we continue to talk about 11 months on—with its cuts to indexation, cuts to concessions, cuts to the deeming threshold and the proposed increase in the retirement age to 70. No change—really!

What we have seen in this budget is not just a broken promise but a straight-out attack on the living standards of Australia's pensioners. This is in stark contrast to Labor's work in government which did so much to lift age pensioners out of poverty and which made such a difference to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people by giving them the dignity that they deserved in their retirement. Today Labor stands proud of that legacy and stands with the 16,000 pensioners in the Scullin electorate—and pensioners right around Australia—in calling on this government to drop these cuts and keep to its promises to Australian pensioners.