LABOR WILL PROTECT THE PENSION

The age pension is a proud Labor legacy. It was Australia’s first Labor Government which introduced it, and we’ve been fighting for it ever since.

Labor will protect the pension.

By contrast, cutting the pension is in the Liberals’ and Nationals’ DNA. In their decade in office, Scott Morrison and his Liberal-National Government have:

  • Slashed $1 billion from pensioner concessions – designed to help pensioners with the cost of living.
  • Attempted to cut pension indexation.
  • Done a deal with the Greens political party which cut the pension for 370,000 pensioners by changing the pension asset test; many part-pensioners lost their pension altogether.
  • Tried to scrap the Energy Supplement, which would have cut payments for 1.5 million pensioners.

They have also tried again and again – five years in a row – to force older Australians to keep working by raising the pension age to 70. The Morrison Government still has cuts to the pension before the Parliament.

Determined campaigning by the community and Labor stopped some of these measures making life tougher for pensioners across Australia, but older Australians just can’t trust Scott Morrison and the Liberals with another decade in government.

An Albanese Labor Government will always fight to deliver a pension which lets people live with dignity.

We will also work to tackle the cost of living for pensioners, so the pension can go further. We’ll do this by delivering:

  • More no cost scripts – after 36 concession scripts, PBS medicines will be at no cost for the rest of the year.
  • Cheaper power bills.
  • More affordable housing so older Australians who don’t own their own home won’t find all their pension eaten up by rising rents.
  • 50 bulk billed Urgent Care Clinics – so more people can get help with less complex illness or injury, without having to wait at hospital.

Labor will also put an end to neglect in aged care and make sure security, dignity, quality and humanity are put at the center of aged care for older Australians. We’ll put a registered nurse in every aged care home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And will increase the amount of time carers have to care.