Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 20 September the pensioners of Australia will learn what this government thinks of them. That is when their power prices will go up because the energy supplement is coming down for new pensioners. Single pensioners will be $14.10 a fortnight worse off. That might not mean much to this Prime Minister, as he lives in Point Piper and Kirribilli and wherever else, but it means a damn lot to the pensioners in my electorate. They cannot afford a cut of $14.10 per fortnight. Pensioner couples will be $21.20 a fortnight worse-off. These people are already on low incomes. They are turning the power off at night. They cannot afford heating. In the last few weeks, my air conditioner at home has been off because mice have chewed through the control panel. I have had a small taste of what pensioners have to put up with in the cold winters in Tasmania: there is no heat in my house. This is how pensioners live.

I cannot believe that this government is going to make it harder for pensioners to warm themselves over winter by cutting the energy supplement. It is an absolute disgrace. Make no mistake, axing the energy supplement is a $1 billion cut to age pensioners, disability support pensioners and people on Newstart. These are the people in the community who can least afford a cut to their incomes and these are the people this government cuts the most.