PM’s pension delay remarks ‘cruel’ on aged

Any way you look at it, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s recent concession that the single aged pension was ''almost impossible'' to live on, while offering no immediate relief for pensioners, was a cruel thing to say.

Mr Rudd, his deputy Julia Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan have all recently demonstrated just how out of touch they are with Australia’s struggling pensioners. The chorus of “me too” in regard to not being able to survive on the single pension is worse than unfair- it’s cruel.

What it was, was a craven example of how to manipulate the news media for positive ratings and be portrayed as sympathising with the aged, while delivering nothing but rhetoric.

The public taunting of pensioners for political purposes is something we should all feel deeply alarmed about, and a reason why lawyers need to speak up, to defend retirees who need a strong voice to argue for their rights.

Irrespective of your political leanings, there is substantial alarm in Australia right now about a crisis among our pensioners, and in particular the many thousands who struggle to survive on the single pension.

The issue should not be about this political party versus that party’s policies. Whichever party holds the Treasury benches controls the spending. Right now the Rudd Government, as the government in control of the Treasury benches, has the power to increase pensions.

It chooses not to do so at the moment, instead saying things should wait until the outcome of the Henry taxation review, due in February 2009.

Waiting for at least another five months is the “rational and reasonable” approach, Mr Rudd was reported as saying.

As a lawyer with a special interest in issues affecting the elderly, I would love to have Mr Rudd - if he is not off globetrotting again - sit in with some of my aged clients and explain this pension delaying tactic to them.

I would invite him, Miss Gillard and Mr Swan to spend a morning in my law office, where my elderly clients could explain how they plan to cope with the costs of Christmas and New Year on a pension being hammered by rising costs.

If pensioners were hoping for an early Christmas bonus from Mr Rudd, they will be sorely disappointed. “Kevin 07” as he was known pre-election, is now regarded by the media as “Kevin 747” who say he has more plans for overseas junkets than dealing with crises at home.

It is somehow mocking for Mr Rudd to publicly admit single aged pensioners are "doing it exceptionally tough", yet offer no relief beyond the 2.8 CPI increase implemented in September.

This lifted the single pension to around $280 per week. For those who rent, pay for food, power and phone bills and run a car, it’s beyond impossible to expect $280 to stretch to giving them any kind of worthwhile life.

On Queensland’s Gold Coast, where I practice, there are regular media reports of how tough pensioners are doing it. One 66-year-old lady reportedly has only $2 left over after paying her bills every fortnight. She says she lives on the ragged edge of disaster and a broken washing machine or other unexpected repair bill would tip her over the edge.

Elsewhere there are reports of pensioners who cut back on food to pay unexpected bills. For those who rent, the singled aged pension is stretched beyond breaking point in rent, power, phone, petrol, food, insurance and medical bills.

So when the politicians who have the power to make change taunt pensioners by saying they know the pension is too low, but we won’t do anything yet, then such widely reported remarks are cruel and insensitive.

In the meantime are retirees supposed to exist on fresh air and scenery? It’s heartless to promote yourself with an image of someone sympathetic to the plight of retirees, while at the same time telling pensioners they’ll just have to wait until next year for a decision. That’s just exploitation.

What’s worse is that this issue is becoming a political football with political parties trying to dump blame on one another. The fact is, we know the single aged pension is woefully short of a realistic minimum level, yet we just get excuses as to why nothing’s being done to fix it.

Why does it have to wait for some formal bureaucratic review next year?

As a lawyer arguing for the rights of the aged I believe the government should backdate any eventual pension rise, perhaps backdating it to when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase kicked in late September.

The 2.8 per cent CPI increase, calculated over the past six months, lifts the single pension by around $15 a fortnight to around $560, or around $280 a week.

Mr Rudd’s remarks that his government is tackling the issue through the Henry Review on taxation, due in February, would be of little immediate comfort to pensioners struggling from day to day.

The government could - if the willingness was there - make an immediate interim increase in pensions, to carry retirees through the Christmas and New Year period, and sort out final figures after February.

However this idea too was doomed by a late September announcement by Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, who rejected an interim handout to pensioners, saying it would inevitably become permanent.

Governments couldn't give people something, and then take it back, Mr Tanner said. He reportedly added there were very complex questions about eligibility entitlements with, for example, the aged care subsidy system built around the pension rate.

This argument would suggest the government is unfamiliar with the concept of an interim payment and a top-up later. Instead we have political gibberish about giving something then taking it back.

It’s insensitive for the Prime Minister and his ministers to blather about doing nothing until the February review as a “rationale and reasonable” approach. They might not think that way if the pension was their sole income.

Five years ago petrol was 80c a litre. Today it’s at least three times that figure. It’s just one example of the price increases retirees on the single pension have had to cope with.

While the Government had increased the pensioner utilities allowance to $125 a quarter and given retirees a $500 one-off payment as well as the modest CPI increase in their pension, these would be quickly soaked up by bills and the rising cost of living.

Pensioners who own their own homes are being hammered by rates and the pathetic rates discounts offered by councils. Those who rent are struggling to cover their debts and to have any money left over after rents and food bills are paid. Life, for them, has become a day to day endurance.

A significant increase in the pension is overdue, and if the government is going to acknowledge the crisis but delay fixing it, then the least it could do is agree to backdate any eventual pension increase.

Emotions were further heightened in late September when the Rudd Government blocked a Coalition attempt to raise some pensions by $30 a week.

The federal Opposition attempted to introduce legislation to raise the rate of some pensions but Labor used its numbers in the lower house to kill the Bill from the Senate on constitutional grounds because the Senate is not able to originate laws appropriating revenue or monies.

It got worse. Media reports cited documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws which claim federal Cabinet considered raising the pension by $30 a week during its Budget deliberations.

Apparently Treasury costed several options to help pensioners ahead of the Budget, including making one-off payments of $1,000 to provide assistance while pensions were reviewed. But Treasury warned that if the aged pension were lifted, payments to disability pensioners and carers should also be increased. Cabinet decided to do nothing.

This just makes it worse. The Prime Minister and Deputy and Treasurer all agree pensioners are struggling to survive, yet their own Cabinet rejected an interim rescue measure, all in the name of waiting until February 2009 for the outcome of a bureaucratic review.

This is a human issue, not something to play vote-catching politics with. Lawyers need to be speaking out in support of our retirees. They helped build Australia.

They deserve better in their final years.