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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Evans) to questions without notice asked by Senators Ferguson and Bushby today relating to the Prime Minister.

It is with great despair, or increasing levels of despair, that once again I rise to talk about the government’s complete lack of empathy with or understanding of the deprivation and hardship that many of our age pensioners and those who are on fixed incomes and reliant on government support are receiving. It is becoming a tired record when the coalition stands up here saying that we owe pensioners a better deal. We know that they are struggling with the cost of living. We know that they are struggling to feed themselves, to remain in adequate accommodation, with transport and just existing. Every time we raise this, every time we put a question to Senator Evans or someone else in the government, what do we get? They pass the buck.

It is a shame for pensioners, because, whilst the coalition’s priorities are about ensuring that people stand to gain from the bloated $22 billion surplus inherited by this government that they are not prepared to release to ease the cost-of-living pressures upon those who are amongst the most vulnerable in our society, what do we get from the Labor Party? Let me tell you, Mr Deputy President. Whilst pensioners are concerned with the price of petrol, the government says they cannot do anything anymore and they refuse to countenance or consider a reduction in the petrol tax or fuel excise. When pensioners are saying that the price of power means they cannot put on their heaters for more than a couple of hours a day, what do we get from the government? They say, ‘We’re going to put prices up through some of these cockamamie schemes that are going to increase prices for people who are really struggling in our society.’ When pensioners are saying they cannot afford to provide the sustenance that they require, what do we get from the Labor Party? We get complaints about the size of the stroganoff portions in the cafeteria. Where are their priorities? It is embarrassing. It is humiliating.

When we talk about and remind them of the unlivable pension, a fact that is acknowledged by the Labor Party—they know that people on pensions are struggling—what do we get? We have the unlimited travel of the Prime Minister. That is all it is. He does not care about pensioners. What he cares about is the 24-hour media spin cycle. He is talking about a global financial crisis while ignoring the financial crisis that our pensioners are finding themselves in today. He is talking about stopping short-selling on the share market, but he will not talk about putting more food on the tables of pensioners. What more important thing is there, quite frankly, than helping someone to survive? According to this government, there is a whole lot more that is important. The price of stroganoff is more important down in the lower house than making sure a pensioner can get more than a loaf of bread and a jar of jam to feed themselves for a week.

Whilst the Prime Minister is in denial about these things and jets off into the sunset to talk in New York with bigwigs—including Missy Higgins I understand—Ms Gillard and Mr Swan have acknowledged that the pension is not enough. We know Mr Rudd talks the good talk in the Labor Party because he promised pensioners:

… there is no way on God’s earth that I intend to leave them in the lurch.

Well, he has left them in the lurch. The government are lurching from one crisis to another and all the time they are focused on the 24-hour media spin cycle because that is what is truly important to them. The perception is out there: they really do not care about the impact on people on the ground. They pay homage to them and they pay lip-service to them. At the very first community cabinet they were asked, ‘Who can live on the single age pension?’ What was the response? There was no-one who could live on it. What have they done since? Nothing.

The Labor Party are going to say that they have enacted the coalition’s promises from before the election for utility services and things of that nature. They have done that—we accept that—but pensioners still cannot afford to live. When will the Labor Party get that through their thick skulls? Pensioners cannot afford to live and the government are doing nothing about it. That is why the coalition—together with some of the minor parties we hope—believe that pensioners are owed a better deal. We are striving to give them a better deal. Whilst the government are turning their back on pensioners and on the very real needs of some who have made the greatest contribution to our society over a long period of time, we are presenting a real alternative.