Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak briefly on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Energy Assistance Payment and Pensioner Concession Card) Bill 2017.

Labor will support this bill: we will not deny pensioners the very modest one-off payment outlined in this bill. However, Labor will not let the Turnbull government off the hook, because in every single budget the Liberals have handed down they have proposed cuts to the pension. The energy assistance payment in this bill is merely an attempt to distract Australian pensioners from the fact that this Liberal government wants to abolish the energy supplement. The Turnbull government is offering a one-off energy assistance payment of $75 to single pensioners, or less than $1.50 a week, while attempting to take $365 each and every year from single pensioners by removing the energy supplement to new pensioners.

We should also remember the origins of this one-off payment: it suddenly appeared on the day the Turnbull government did a deal with the Senate crossbench to get company tax cuts through the Senate. Let's be very clear about this: the Turnbull government is not making this one-off payment by choice, it is because they are paying off a deal. They are not doing it because they care about energy prices or pensioners. Labor will again oppose the government's attempt to remove the energy supplement from the most vulnerable when that measure is brought before the Senate.

The 2017 budget confirms that the Liberals and Nationals still want to abolish the energy supplement for pensioners. Axing the energy supplement will mean a cut of $14.10 per fortnight to single pensioners or $365 a year. Couple pensioners will be $21.20 a fortnight worse off or around $550 a year worse off. It is also worth noting that Newstart recipients will not get this one-off $75 payment. Australians struggling on Newstart will not get a cent as a result of this bill. However, Australians on Newstart face a cut as a result of the abolition of the energy supplement, with a single person on Newstart losing $8.80 per fortnight or around $220 a year.

Another schedule in this bill is the restoration of the pension concession card to around 90,000 pensioners who lost their pension on 1 January this year as a result of this government's changes to the pension assets test. This is an embarrassing backflip for the coalition. It was a double blow for pensioners to lose their pension as well as their pensioner card and all the concessions and discounts that came with it. Just a few months ago, the Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge, said the issue of pensioner concessions was a matter for state, territory and local governments. All of a sudden, the Minister for Human Services has realised the federal government can restore pensioner concessions to these seniors. Labor does welcome the government's backflip but they have only done this because the Labor Party pressured them into it.