Before the election, Tony Abbott promised there would be no change to pensions.
Last year, Labor protected 3.5 million pensioners from Tony Abbott’s cuts to their pensions and we will protect pensioners from these latest cuts.
In this year’s Budget, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison want to cut the pensions of almost 330,000 low income pensioners, including 90,000 who will lose their pensions entirely.
Labor has carefully considered the proposal and it’s clear the Government has not been upfront about the full extensive impact of these cuts.
Independent analysis shows that these new cuts will affect half of all new retirees within ten years.
It shows more than a million retirees will be affected by these cuts, including 700,000 people who will retire in the next decade.
Some single pensioners will lose more than $8,000 a year – a quarter of their yearly income of $36,000.
Some couples will lose approximately $14,000 a year.
These are not rich people, they are not on high incomes – and they deserve dignity and security in their old age.
People planning and saving for their retirement now will be affected.
These people have worked and saved hard their whole life. They deserve dignity and respect in their retirement.
Instead, Tony Abbott is attacking their savings.
If you’re on a pension, if you will rely upon a pension in the future – the Liberals are coming after you.
And the only party standing in the way is Labor.
And we know, if this government is re-elected they will cut pensions again.
These cuts send an unequivocal, unmistakable message to every pensioner in Australia – never trust this Prime Minister again.
Labor is up for sensible, responsible changes - that’s why we’ve announced today we will support $1.5 billion of sensible changes.
And we’ve proposed over $14 billion in savings over ten years from excessive super tax concessions for the very few.
The Government’s own Budget papers show the cost of total superannuation tax concessions will outstrip the cost of the Age Pension in just four years.
Despite this, Tony Abbott has refused to consider fair and responsible changes to excessive superannuation tax concessions for the wealthy.
This Government would rather attack two generations of pensioners than tackle super tax breaks for the very wealthy few.
FACTS ON THE GOVERNMENT’S PENSION CUTS
Independent advice shows that half of all people leaving the workforce in the next ten years will be impacted by these changes.
- A single Age Pensioner who owns their home and has a super income of less than $25,000 and total income of $36,000 would lose $8,200 of their $11,800 part pension, per year – nearly a quarter of their total income.
- The Government wants to take more than $13,500 away from a pensioner couple who have a superannuation income of less than $40,000 per year.
TUESDAY, 16 JUNE 2015
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LACHLAN POULTER (MACKLIN) 0423 937 655
