Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services, Senator Cory Bernardi, said the Coalition has backed a Senate motion urging the Treasurer to raise the single aged pension.
Senator Bernardi said that Kevin Rudd promised senior Australians that he would take action on cost of living pressures yet has failed to ease the financial pressures on pensioners.
“During the 2007 election campaign, the Coalition guaranteed senior Australians that pensions would be topped up to ensure pensioners were fully compensated for the increases in the Living Cost Index for Age Pensioner Households (LCIAP),” Senator Cory Bernardi said.
“LCIAP, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in August each year, looks at a basket of goods which reflects pensioners’ particular household spending patterns rather than the consumer price index which reflects general consumer prices across the whole economy.
“Minister for Families, Jenny Macklin has acknowledged that the cost of living was making it harder for pensioners to pay the bills1 yet has failed to influence her government to do anything other than administer a few ‘watching’ schemes and implement over 150 reviews.
“Pensioners are doing it tough. The only people who don’t think so are the out of touch members of the Rudd Government whose inaction has resulted in the rising cost of living pressures.”
