Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to comment on the answers from Senator Conroy, the Minister representing the Treasurer, to my questions about the failure of the government last night to increase pensions in the budget. Senator Conroy said that the budget reforms will deliver to those who are most in need. That underlines the failure of the government to realise the terrible financial circumstances that so many pensioners in Australia are in. It is simply not true that the budget delivers to those who are most in need. The tax cuts will deliver $31 billion over coming years principally, and disproportionately, to people who are already wealthy and do not need it the most at all. However, those pensioners who are on $273 a week get not one measly dollar increase in that income under the budget. Sure, there are new indexation arrangements, but they will perhaps lead to marginally increased pensions down the line when everybody else who is earning an income, certainly those people on higher incomes, will outstrip them enormously again.

I am really concerned for pensioners. The Greens have been campaigning for some years for an increase in pensions while noting that since 1993 there has been no real increase in the pensions being delivered to more than one million Australians, the senior members of the working families of this country, who have been left out of the budget. Sure, there are one-off payments for telecommunications and power bills and a $500 one-off payment, as we saw in the last couple of Howard and Costello budgets. But these are not going to give pensioners the assurance that they can budget to live reasonably in a world of rapidly rising food costs, transport costs, rental costs and health costs, to name just a few.

In my supplementary question I quoted from a letter from a Tasmanian pensioner who is now 79 and will be 80 next February. This pensioner pointed out that they twice had operations on their eyes—maybe it was for cataracts—and it cost them $2,680. In their own handwriting, they said:

Because I couldn’t afford medical benefits, I had to save for months.

This pensioner said that they go to the grocery store and can only look at most of the things on the shelves because they cannot afford to buy them. They cannot afford meat, they cannot afford petrol, they cannot afford tyres and they certainly cannot afford to have their car serviced—let alone a new hot-water system or repairs to their hot-water system or new clothes, shoes or spectacles. This senior Australian said:

It would be nice to get a gardener to get rid of the weeds, but that’s out of the question. It’s what I call a starvation diet.

This pensioner is not alone in this. I have had many handwritten letters from pensioners all over this country outlining their budgets, and today on talkback radio the phones have been running hot with calls from pensioners. I find it quite extraordinary that the opposition is not leading the charge on this. I ask the opposition to consider this matter because many Liberal Party and National Party voters are affected. In opposition, maybe you will be freer to take up the cudgels to get a fair go for pensioners in this country.

I was amazed that last night, in a budget from a social justice Labor government, there was not even a $1 increase for pensioners, who are living under extraordinary pressure. Simple things like going to the pictures or buying gifts for family, let alone going to visit grandkids or other members of the family, become out of reach for pensioners. Do those of us who are on high incomes understand what that means? There is a disjunction between the body politic and these million-plus Australians who are in so much need. Senator Conroy was wrong to say that those most in need are being helped by this budget. Those most in need include these pensioners—indeed, a good many carers have been left out of this budget.

I appeal to the government to review this situation urgently. Pensioners are hurting. The pensioners union is calling, as a starting point, for the singles pension to be increased from 59 per cent of the pension for couples to 66 per cent. The Greens have been campaigning for a $30 to $100 a week increase. That could be facilitated simply out of this current round of tax cuts, and you would have change left over. There is a $27 billion budget surplus, so the country has enormous potential at the moment to give something to pensioners. I appeal to the government to look at this very serious hardship that is being visited upon so many Australians needlessly. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.