Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Abbott government's changes to the asset limits and taper rates of pensioners will cut the income of 327,000 Australians. Ninety-one thousand people will lose all of their part pensions and on average will be $4,900 a year worse off. And 236,000 people will lose part of their pension, making them on average $3,380 per year worse off.

Whilst initially some 170,000 people will benefit from the changes, within 10 years 50 per cent of all pensioners will be worse off. The effects are confirmed by the Abbott government's own budget figures, which show that the changes will save the government $2.4 billion over the next four years—that is, $2.4 billion that will mainly come out of the pockets of older Australians. Within my electorate, there are around 24,000 people who rely on a pension, of which about 10,000 are on a part pension and they will be affected.

The government knows these changes are unfair and that is why only a handful of government MPs were prepared to even speak in support of this legislation and why the government then chose to close down the debate on the changes. The government treats pensioners as easy targets. Since coming to office, it has brought in one measure after another which adds to pensioners' cost of living. Older Australians do not deserve to be treated so disrespectfully by their government, who, before the 2013 election, promised that there would be no changes to pensions.