Bill
Social Services Legislation Amendment (Fair and Sustainable Pensions) Bill 2015
passed, as at 2015-06-30. Social Services portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Social Services
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2015-06-04
- second reading — 2015-06-04
- second reading — 2015-06-17
- second reading — 2015-06-18
- second reading — 2015-06-18
- committee — 2015-06-19
- committee — 2015-06-22
- third reading — 2015-06-22
- introduced — 2015-06-22
- second reading — 2015-06-22
- second reading — 2015-06-22
- second reading — 2015-06-22
- third reading — 2015-06-22
- passed — 2015-06-22
- royal assent — 2015-06-30
Divisions
- Karen McNamara Australia is a generous and compassionate nation. Our society has been built upon a commitment to help those less fortunate and to look after our mates. Throughout the years Australia has had a strong social safety net for those in need. It is crucial that we ensure the sustainability of this safety net and guarantee that it will be there for generations to come. Over the past 12 months the federal government has spent approximately $150 billion on social services and welfare. This spending provides Australians with pensions, aged care, benefits to families and individuals, and the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Of this, the age pension is our largest welfare payment, totalling an estimated $44 billion in 2015-16. This represents close to 35 per cent of the Commonwealth budget. In the coming decade the costs of delivering these services will increase as our population grows and ages. The _Intergenerational_ _r__eport_ stated that the number of Australians aged 65 and over is projected to more than double by 2055. Future projections anticipate that by 2055 there will be approximately 40,000 people aged 100 and over. Payments made through age and service pensions are projected to increase each year, and in real monetary terms spending per person is projected to increase from almost $2,000 in 2014-15 to around $3,200 in 2054-55. Currently, this spending accounts for 2.9 per cent of our gross domestic product; without changes to how we deliver the age pension this amount will increase to 3.6 per cent of GDP by 2054-55. This is an unsustainable path for Australia. It is essential that we address the sustainability of Australia's pension system to ensure that we are able to provide for senior Australians in future years. The age pension provides support for 2.4 million Australians and contributes to a broad retirement income system, which also includes superannuation and voluntary savings. This government will ensure that, as our population ages, our — 2015-06-18, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 77, noes 53
- The majority agreed with the bill's main idea. In parliamentary jargon, they voted in favour of reading the bill for a [second time](http://www.peo.gov.au/learning/fact-sheets/making-a-law.html). This means that they can now discuss the bill in more detail. ### What is the bill's main idea? The bill (as amended) makes changes to the assets test for all means tested income support payments, including allowances and pensions. Firstly, it increases the threshold above which your assests are tested (known as "free areas") for the purposes of support payments. In other words, people on allowances or full pensions can have more assets than they currently can before those assets are included in their means testing - but not that much more. See the [bills digest](http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1415a/15bd129) for the asset test limits. People on allowances whose assets are above the free areas will no longer be eligible for that allowance while pensioners whose assets are above the free areas will have their pensions reduced at an increased rate. If someone is no longer eligible for a payment as a result of the changes, the bill makes them eligible for a concession card (either a Health Care Card or a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card). Read more in the [bills digest](http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1415a/15bd129). — 2015-06-18, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 77, noes 53
- Scott Morrison I ask leave of the House that that motion be withdrawn. Leave granted. I ask leave of the House to move government amendments (1) to (6) as circulated together. Leave granted. Jenny Macklin Today, members opposite—all of them, Liberal members, National Party members—are once again going to vote for a cut to the pension. They have already done it once. Everybody around Australia remembers the first time when members of the Liberal and National parties voted to cut the indexation of the pension, and today they are going to do it again. Three hundred thousand pensioners around Australia are about to have their pension cut because of this Liberal and National Party government—300,000 pensioners who were told before the last election by Mr Abbott that there would be no changes to pensions. How many times did he say it? Over and over again, Mr Abbott told pensioners that there would be no changes. He lied to them once in last year's budget and then tried, day after day after day over the last year, to defend this cut to indexation. Now, in this year's budget, he is lying to them again— Don Randall The member for Jagajaga must be careful in using that term in this chamber. Jenny Macklin by introducing another cut to the pension, this time by changing the way the assets test works. Each and every pensioner in Australia—and there are 3½ million pensioners—is going to remember, particularly as they go to the election, that this Prime Minister did not tell the truth. They will never forget it, and I can assure and each and every member opposite that we will make sure of it. What pensioners will be saying to themselves and to their neighbours is: 'What will they do to us next? What will these Liberal and National Party members do to us next?' How could they possibly trust a Prime Minister who told them before the last election that there would be no changes to the pension—and yet here we are debating yet another change to the pension? We know that the Prime Minis — 2015-06-22, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 82, noes 54
- Long debate text truncated. — 2015-06-22, Senate: affirmative, ayes 42, noes 21
- Mitch Fifield I move: That the bill be now read a third time. — 2015-06-22, Senate: affirmative, ayes 42, noes 21
Plain-language summary
No machine-written summary in this export.
Sources
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