Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Families and Social Services (Senator Ruston) to a question without notice asked by Senator Farrell today, relating to the age pension.

I am a little bit surprised at the answers that we got from Senator Ruston in respect of the questions that I asked regarding her statement that the pension is too generous. This was an opportunity for the minister to come clean and say that she made a mistake about the generosity of the pension and to apologise to those pensioners, particularly in her home state of South Australia.

As you would know, Deputy President, South Australia, per capita, has the highest number of pensioners in the country. Senator Ruston's comments were quite offensive to those pensioners, many of whom are struggling and doing it hard. The opportunity that Senator Ruston had was to say to those pensioners in South Australia and the rest of the country: 'Look, I made a mistake. The pension is not too generous and I'm going to apologise for saying that to those pensioners.'

Instead, the best we got was that she wanted to 'clarify' her comments. I don't think the comments needed clarification; we knew exactly what the minister was saying. She was saying to all those pensioners out there, 'Your pension is too generous'. What pensioners wanted, and what the community wanted, to hear the minister say was, 'Yes, I was mistaken; the pension is not too generous and I apologise for those comments.'

Then, in the second question I asked the minister, I said, 'Look, have you spoken to the Treasurer or any other member of the government about these comments?' Again the minister had an opportunity to tell the Australian people about the conversations that she's had with the Treasurer and other members of the government with regard to her comments about the generosity of the pension. But we didn't get an answer. I know it will surprise you that we didn't get an answer, but we didn't get an answer. There was an opportunity for Senator Ruston to say, 'Yes, I have spoken with the Treasurer, he has acknowledged the pension is not too generous and I agree with him in respect of that.' But again we missed that opportunity from Senator Ruston. So we still don't know who is right in the government. Is it Senator Ruston, the minister responsible for pensioners in this government, saying one thing, or is it Minister Frydenberg saying another thing? What is the position of the government? I'm sure you'd like to know that answer, Deputy President.

My third question related to a statement by Mr Ian Henschke. Ian Henschke is quite a famous South Australian. He was a famous, great broadcaster and an even better winemaker. But, on this occasion, he was talking in his capacity as an advocate for seniors. He got the ball rolling on the deeming rate and he nailed the government on this issue, because the government has been secretly squirrelling away money that ought to have been in the pockets of pensioners. How is the government doing that? Well, while the RBA was reducing interest rates, the government kept the so-called deeming rate way, way above the level that the RBA has set. Now, you might say that interest rates dropping are a good thing, but the reality is that, if you're trying to rely on those interest rates to supplement what is not a generous pension, of course you're struggling. More importantly, I think, it's worth noting that dropping interest rates are not the sign of a good economy, they're a sign of an economy in trouble. Of course, that's what we know is happening in this country at the moment. But, thanks to Mr Ian Henschke, he got the ball rolling on this and he nailed the government. They were squirrelling away money that should've been in in pockets of pensioners and keeping it for themselves. (Time expired)