Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

It is extraordinary to sit here and to have to listen to some of the nonsense being spewed by those on the government side. Quite frankly, they are justifying a complete lack of action; they are justifying their complete ignorance of the needs of pensioners by saying that they are not doing anything else or that the coalition’s proposal is not helping others that are out there. This is a complete furphy. It is nonsense. We have proposed some concrete action because this government is ignoring the needs of those who are on fixed incomes—that is, age pensioners specifically on this occasion.

Senator Arbib talked about disability pensioners—of course the coalition wants to help them—but what Senator Arbib is probably not familiar with is the fact that disability pensioners have a range of additional benefits that are not available to age pensioners. The coalition is proposing that we help those who are struggling right now. Let us help age pensioners and then let us move on and assess these other things as we go along. There are two million people in this country who are on the age pension and have been ignored by this government. This government has been fiddling while these pensioners are unable to fill their car with petrol, unable to feed themselves or unable to turn the heater on during a cold winter for fear of not being able to afford it. This is a cold and dark-hearted government. There is no question about that. They have failed Australians.

Mr Rudd, in his lovely manner, went out and promised Australians that he would ease their cost-of-living burdens. He has failed to do it. He has said, ‘We are going to wait and we are going to have one of 150 reviews, and then we will respond to it.’ We cannot believe that because Mr Rudd has pre-empted the results of his reviews whenever it has suited him. He has said, ‘Let’s pay Mr Bracks five-hundred-and-something dollars a day to have a car review but, because we probably will not like what we are going to hear, let’s just introduce a new tax along the way.’ He has said, ‘Let’s have a review of the Northern Territory emergency response’—which this Senate agreed to—‘but, before we get the results of that, let’s change some things that keep the communities safer.’ He has said, ‘Let’s have a review of solar panel rebates but, before we review that and before we have that final report, let’s just impose a means test.’

This is a government that puts spin above substance every single time, and it is appalling for the members of the government to come in here and try to justify the neglect of two million people who have served this country in so many capacities but are now reliant on the age pension. These people, most of whom have very few assets outside of their family home, are being forced to do things they do not really want to do. They are forced to get reverse equity mortgages, they are forced to go without food and they are forced to stop their entertainment because this government will not find $30 a week—I repeat, $30 a week. I challenge the government to understand how meaningful that sum can be to an age pensioner. They dress it up by saying, ‘We are going to have a review and in 2010, probably, we might be able to do something about it.’ I say, and the coalition says, that is simply not good enough.

We have heard their manufactured excuses and we have heard their justifications that really just demonstrate how callous they are. We have also seen all sorts of other speculation brought into it, such as it cutting a hole in the budget surplus. I am a taxpayer, and the taxpayers I speak to do not mind pensioners getting a better deal. They realise the contribution they have made to this country. But somehow those on the government bench say that, no, a surplus should be accumulated for no worthwhile purpose and, in the meantime, for 15 or 18 months people can go hungry whilst we have $23 billion in the bank. There is something wrong with the priorities of this government, and it is something that strikes to the very heart of why they came into power. They are not in it to help people. They are in power for power’s sake. Mr Rudd has spent his entire life being a bureaucrat, trying to climb the ladder, and now he has finally got there he does not know what to do. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.