Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

I am summing up on behalf of the Rudd Labor government the package of legislation, known as the Economic Security Strategy, that the Senate has before it. It is traditional in these appropriation debates to range far and wide, and I am going to respond to a couple of points that Senator McGauran in particular made. He ranged so far and wide that he did not speak from his own seat. I will get to some specific contributions shortly.

However, I do want to congratulate Senator Fielding. I think he made a very thoughtful contribution. It went to one of the underlying causes of the credit crisis that we have seen—known colloquially as the US subprime housing crisis—and the importance of ensuring that we have a responsible lending regime, unlike the US. That was the base cause of the US economic crisis that now confronts the global community. It is in response to that economic crisis, which has its cause in the United States—about which I have spoken on a number of occasions in this place—that the government has taken a range of decisive actions, and the appropriations legislation we are considering is one of those decisive actions. It delivers a $10.4 billion Economic Security Strategy to strengthen the Australian economy and to support Australians through these difficult times.

The Economic Security Strategy provides relief to those in the community who have been struggling in the past couple of years to meet rising costs of housing, petrol and food, particularly those on low incomes or with children and other family members to support, and I think very deservedly so, not as Senator McGauran described, ‘They’re throwing money at these people.’ It was a particularly derogatory description, Senator McGauran, of people who really do it tough at the best of times and who, in the current economic turmoil facing the world, deserve priority consideration. I appreciate that, in debates such as this, that there is a wide-ranging contribution on all manner of issues, but I thought your reference to people in that almost sneering throwaway line that they were not deserving of support was particularly unfortunate.

The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Economic Security Strategy) Bill 2008 will assist some four million pensioners and two million families, Senator McGauran—I am glad you are here to hear just who is being assisted. The bill will deliver a $4.8 billion down payment to pensioners, leading up to comprehensive reform of the pension system. Effectively, this is additional support before essential long-term reforms are made by this Labor government in the context of the 2009-10 budget.

Essential reforms to our pension system, Senator McGauran and members of the Liberal-National Party, that were not carried out in your almost 12 long years of office. You did nothing for pensioners. And I will get to one of the claims that you made, and this is where you really did lose touch—