Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I congratulate you on your new position in the Senate. I rise on the same matter of pensions and benefits. Before I outline some of the details of the start that the Rudd government has already made, contrary to the suggestions of some of the senators who spoke earlier, can I first express my surprise at the sheer audacity of the content of the debate so far from opposition senators. Senator Bernardi suggests that there has been spin but no substance or action in this area. Let me address that point first.

While there is more to do and the government is concerned about the pressure of inflation on seniors, the government has made a start. We have provided $1.4 billion in extra support to seniors. A $500 bonus was paid to 2.7 million senior Australians. This came on top of our commitment of over $5 billion over five years to increases in a number of areas—to increase the utilities allowance and seniors concession allowance from $107.20 to $500 a year and to increase the telephone allowance for those with a home internet connection from $88 to $132 a year, beginning 20 March. The first quarterly instalments of these payments were made in March and in June. These increases are ongoing and locked in for the future, not like the past Howard government’s one-off payments. We are also examining indexation arrangements for the age pension.

But let us contrast that with what has been put forward by the alternative government to date. Senator Boyce gave me one extra policy idea in the debate today—let’s look at renting half a house. While I am sure she made that comment in part jest, as a quip in this debate, if you look at the other alternatives that have been canvassed by our alternative government you see there is an enormous void. We did originally have the shadow minister suggest that we look at the indexation issue, but within 24 hours we had the alternative Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, saying, ‘No, we’re not talking about doing that.’ That is the extent of the alternative government’s position in this area. Just look at that when you consider the audacity of this being the one issue that the opposition chose for debate today arising from question time.

Certainly we do have a range of issues under review, because we do have a longer-term concern with how we structure our welfare and social security system. We do want to put in long-term, economically manageable improvements for the wellbeing of our seniors and other social security recipients. We do want to keep in mind how that relates to the tax system. We do not want to follow the history and the pattern of the Howard government of one-off payments that were not costed or accounted for in following years, one-off payments that often were introduced in the period before an election and were not maintained for the period following an election. It was an ad hoc system.

Interestingly, ‘ad hoc’ relates to other issues that were canvassed in question time today on industry policy. I heard questions on the car industry coming from the opposition. Again, the audacity of the opposition in that area astounds me. If you look at the Howard government’s history of industry policy and all of the ad hoc measures particularly with respect to the car industry in South Australia—and Senator Minchin has come back into the chamber—the audacity of questions today in relation to the car industry was astounding. A long-term vision, a long-term plan, which is what the Rudd government is seeking to establish, is critical there as well.

But, going back to the pensions issue, let me stress that the government knows that many pensioners are doing it tough, with cost of living pressures resulting from the rising cost of groceries and other bills. Over the year to June 2008, food prices rose by 3.9 per cent. Fuel rose by 8.7 per cent in the last quarter and by 18.4 per cent over the year to June 2008. Some of this is the legacy of poor economic management by the former government. As responsible economic managers, we know that we must seriously address some of these issues. (Time expired)