Illawarra Labor MPs fear thousands of the region’s pensioners will have their benefits slashed, thanks to a ‘‘grubby deal’’ between the Abbott government and the Greens.
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Member for Cunningham Sharon Bird and Throsby MP Stephen Jones said they would fight to protect pensioners in their electorates from Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s latest cuts.
According to the MPs, about 330,000 pensioners nationwide will be affected by the government-Greens deal, aimed at tightening tests for the aged pension, including 7760 people in Cunningham and 8410 in Throsby.
“Within 10 years, more than half of all new retirees will be affected by this cut,’’ Ms Bird said.
‘‘Single pensioners will lose as much as $8000 and couples will lose as much as $14,000.
“The government might claim that all these pensioners are rich [but] that is just not true.
‘‘Pensioners with as little as $289,000 in assets will lose because of this cut.”
Mr Jones said Labor had ‘‘stood alongside’’ the country’s 3 million pensioners in the fight against cuts to pension indexation.
‘‘The only thing that prevented Tony Abbott from getting his way and pushing pensioners into poverty was Labor,’’ he said.
“We have made it clear that we would continue to fight for Australian pensioners and oppose these cuts.
‘‘Whilst everyone knows Tony Abbott will do anything to cut the pension, this is a new low for the Greens.”
The MPs pointed to a promise made by Mr Abbott the day before the 2013 federal election, that there would be ‘‘no change to pensions’’.
The government and the Greens have defended the deal, which will see about 170,000 pensioners get an extra $15 a week, but about 91,000 home-owning retirees lose their part pension.
Another 235,000 people will have their pension reduced.
‘‘I felt I had an obligation to support what was one of very, very few decent measures in the Abbott budget,’’ Greens leader Richard Di Natale said.
The government, in exchange for Greens’ support, will give a six-week extension to its tax white paper to explicitly look at all retirement income arrangements, including superannuation.
However, it maintains there will be no change to superannuation arrangements in this term of government, and has no plans for changes after that.
