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

Thank you very much, Mr Acting Deputy President. Senator Whish-Wilson can be flippant about the self-funded retirees in his home city of Launceston, where we both have our electorate offices, but he will not be so flippant when he is reminded at that the next federal election—because they will not forget this. A lot of those self-funded retirees would, in the main, vote for the government—but they will now label the Greens as being bed partners with the coalition government. At the next federal election, the Greens will reap the rewards of the seeds that they have sown.

But quite sincerely, it is very disappointing. I have worked alongside Senator Siewert on so many inquiries through the work that we do within the community affairs committee. I think she is a very hardworking senator, and I give her credit for that. But to have her now be part of the Greens who sell out Australian pensioners and self-funded retirees—it is just terrible. It is absolutely terrible. I just do not understand it. This is so regrettable, and I am not sure really how to put into words how disappointed I am. I am really and sincerely disappointed. I myself have had to live on a very limited income that was provided by the government in a time of very great stress to myself and my family. And so I know what it is like to try and make ends meet from one fortnight to the next, and to be unable to replace the big items in your household—where you quite clearly just do not have the money to replace your washing machine or your refrigerator. That is the sort of difficulty that the Greens have now put in place for too many Australians who have either retired, are pensioners or are self-funded retirees. They are the strugglers. This should not be happening. Neither should it be the case that those who come in here and lecture us about fairness and equity are selling out to this most conservative, arrogant, out-of-touch government that I have witnessed in all my time of being here in the Senate.