Reports today reveal that the Turnbull Government’s attack on pensioners and people with disability is set to extend to the Centrelink debt recovery debacle.
Around 3 million pensioners and people with disability are in the sights of the Turnbull Government’s error riddled debt recovery program.
Labor has repeatedly called on the Turnbull Government to suspend the flawed data matching program until the problems with the system are fixed.
Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals are completely out of touch. They are happy to shakedown pensioners and people with disability with debt collectors but at the same time they want to give a $50 billion handout to big business and the banks.
The Liberal Government’s record on the Age Pension is atrocious.
Before the 2013 election the Liberals promised “no cuts to pensions”.
Then in every single Budget the Liberals have tried to cut the pension.
In the 2014 Budget they tried to cut pension indexation - a cut that would have meant pensioners would be forced to live on $80 a week less within ten years.
Then the Liberals did a deal with the Greens to cut the pension to around 330,000 part-pensioners by changing the assets test commencing 1 January 2017.
The Liberals still want to increase the pension age to 70 - meaning Australia would have the oldest pension age in the developed world.
The Liberals want to abolish the Energy Supplement to pensioners - 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.
On top of all that around 190,000 pensioners will have their pension cut as a result of Malcolm Turnbull’s plan to limit overseas travel for Australian pensioners.
Pensioners and people with disability should be treated with respect, they certainly don’t deserve to be treated like frauds and cheats by the Turnbull Government.
Labor will continue to call on the Turnbull Government to suspend the flawed Centrelink Debt debacle until the problems are fixed.
Turnbull has pensioners and people with disability in his sights
17 January 2017
The Hon Linda Burney MP, Shadow Minister for Human Services, ALP Member for Barton; The Hon Jenny Macklin MP, Shadow Member for Families and Social Services, ALP Member for Jagajaga
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