Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Fair and Sustainable Pensions) Bill 2015. Australia is a generous and compassionate nation and our society has been built upon a commitment to help those less fortunate, but the measures in the bill before tonight stand to jeopardise this. The measures in this bill stand to dissolve the strong social safety net put in place by Labor. Labor will continue to fight for a strong social safety net for those who have worked hard and saved for their retirement. We will protect a safety net that says that when you grow older, when you have worked your whole life, when you have paid your taxes and when you have worked to build this country, then the government will ensure you have a sensible and reasonable retirement. The Prime Minister has tried to cut the pension ever since he was elected. Academics and policy experts have condemned these nasty pension cuts in their submissions to the Senate inquiry into the legislation. The Senate inquiry would have allowed proper scrutiny of these cuts, but the Abbott government and the Greens have teamed up to shut it down. By ramming and rushing these cuts, the Abbott government and the Greens are not allowing us to have a wholesome and mature discussion and are denying us the ability to do our jobs properly.

Those on the other side of the House like to talk a lot about how much they respect older Australians and how they want to protect them in their retirement, but we are yet to see them walk the walk. It is very easy to talk the talk, but when are they going to start demonstrating it? As said before, we have before us a bill of legislation that is unfair and represents repeated broken promises. The first broken promise is reflected in those famous words spoken by the Prime Minister when he said he would make no changes to the pension. He promised this nine times before the last election—not once, not twice but nine times. Tony Abbott's first budget disgracefully targeted pensioners as an easy source of revenue and now we are witnessing a second lot of changes the government wants to make to the pension.

The first time the Abbott government targeted pensioners in 2014. Labor joined forces with the community and won. We stood side by side with pensioners in every corner of Australia and fought the Prime Minister's unfair changes from last year's budget and we won. Because of Labor, 3.5 million pensioners can rest easy, but we will continue to stand for Australian pensions. The next phase of the government's push to unfairly target pensioners has begun and the Australian Greens have signed a grubby deal with the Abbott government to rip $2.4 billion from pensioners' pockets. It does not matter how many times Senator Di Natale, the new leader of the Greens, comes into this chamber and tries to justify the agreement that was made, he cannot, because, quite frankly, the Greens have sold out. Quite clearly, they have sold out and they have joined the coalition. So, when it suits them, they come into this chamber and make claims about them being holier than thou, that they are the people who speak for the undertrodden and those people who have been left behind, but, quite clearly, when it suits them they will get into bed with the government, and that is what they have done on this occasion. This is quite clearly a grubby, dirty deal to put their hands in the pockets of every Australian pensioner in this country.

This deal sends an unmistakable message to every pensioner in Australia to never, ever trust the Abbott government and to never, ever again trust the Greens. As I said, it does not matter how many times the Greens say it—whether it is the Greens leader or any other member of the Greens team—they will never be able to justify this unfair attack on the retirement of Australian pensioners who have saved, worked and paid their taxes for all these years and planned for their retirement. We have examined the proposed changes in detail and we have looked at how it will impact on retirees in the future. We have also worked through the policy detail and consulted with the ageing and superannuation sectors to understand the true impact of these changes. This is the way we go about business, because, unlike the government, Labor values fairness. Every which way we turn, all we see is a sustained attack on pensioners who have worked hard all their life and saved hard to retire with some comfort.

We will continue to stand by the Australian pensioners. There are 330,000 people who have worked their entire life and have planned for their retirement who stand to be up to $8,000 worse off every year because of the inequitable and short-sighted move by the government and the Greens. Through this bill, we are seeing 330,000 pensioners worse off in the first year. There will be 90,000 pensioners kicked off the pension altogether and more than half of the new retirees will be left worse off over the next 10 years. Some single pensioners will lose $8,000 and some couples will lose $14,000. The Abbott government is so out of touch with Australian pensioners.

I would like to reflect again on the shameful role of the Greens in this process. Their decision reflects incredibly poorly on the Greens who have sent a million retirees up the river for short-term political gain, and what have they gained out of this grubby deal? What has this grubby deal delivered? A review of superannuation when already Mr Abbott has ruled out any change for the wealthy superannuants of this country. We know that it does not matter, in most cases, what Mr Abbott says or what he puts in writing. He does not keep to his commitments. I will tell you one thing: I would put my house on it that he will keep this commitment, because he will never, ever review superannuation benefits for the wealthy in this country. That you can put your money on every single time. We know on this side that Tony Abbott will never, ever deliver anything more than just a review of superannuation. How can sensible, mature members of this Senate be so gullible as to believe that this government would deliver anything more than a review? We can all review papers, just like they will review them—'We've reviewed superannuation, but we're not changing our position—not at all.'

The Abbott government's dirty deal with the Greens proves that there is only one political party in this country that Australian pensioners can depend on—and that is the Australian Labor Party. We on this side are proud to stand up for Australian pensioners. We will stand up and fight for the pensioners to the next election and beyond. We are the ones who understand that those people entering into retirement—and Australian pensioners—need to have some certainty. They need to have some security. These changes that the Greens are going to support will not allow people to have any certainty or security going forward in their retirement. Australians deserve much better. They certainly do not deserve to be undermined and belittled by Scott Morrison and Mr Abbott. Labor will remind Mr Abbott every day between now and the next election of his broken promises to Australian pensioners. As I said, I am proud to be part of a traditional political party that has always put fairness and equity above political pointscoring and short-term opportunities—unlike the Greens.

Can I say yet again that, too often, we have to sit in this chamber and hear from those opposite—from government senators like Senator Macdonald and like so many others—who come in and lecture us almost daily about the Labor-Greens deals; it is always Labor and the Greens.