As parliament convened for its second sitting week in August, National Seniors Australia put the interests of older people front and centre by arranging and attending 58 meetings with politicians from all sides of politics.
The week began with a meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton, who graciously gave us a few minutes of their precious time.
Running the corridors of power, we met with a range of MPs and Senators, keen to connect and interested to hear about the issues facing older people. This included not only the Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his Opposition counterpart Angus Taylor but also other Ministers, Shadow Ministers, influential backbenchers and political advisors.
While the focus of the meetings was on policy, it also served as an opportunity to build rapport with those at the heart of the political process. We will build on these relationships over time to ensure that your voice is heard.
During the week, National Seniors shared three key policy issues.
We reiterated our call for changes to the pension income test to allow older people to work and retain more of their payment. Our policy, to reduce the income test taper rate from 50c to 32.5c in the dollar, will remove the disincentive for pensioners to work or increase their working hours, helping fill workforce shortages and address cost-of-living pressures.
The MPs we met from rural areas were especially concerned about the lack of workers.
We are pleased both sides of politics are open to exploring a change. The government is committed to looking at this as part of the soon-to-be released Employment White Paper (to which NSA made a submission) and the Opposition has signaled its commitment to changing the rules in some way.
The second policy discussed was a new one.
For a long time, National Seniors has been concerned there is no way to easily give additional support to pensioners facing poverty.
To address this, we put forward the idea of issuing a targeted Pensioner Concession Card for people who reach pension age with limited means or who draw down on their savings as they get older.
A targeted Pensioner Concession Card would give local, state, and federal governments a simple means to provide additional help at low cost to those most in need (above and beyond what they already get).
For example, an eligible cardholder could receive additional support to access dental care or cheaper medicines or to receive a higher concession which reflects their limited means.
With an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 pensioners living in poverty in Australia, this is a practical way to help those doing it tough as cost-of-living pressures mount.
National Seniors also discussed the importance of fixing the aged care system – in particular, the need to take a principles approach to any changes to aged care funding arrangements.
With the government debating how to raise the additional funds required to meet rising demand and improvements to quality, we reiterated our view that aged care providers should be required to demonstrate full transparency when spending public and private funds.
We shared some of the valuable insights from our recent survey of 10,000 older people on funding reform. These insights have already been provided to the Aged Care Taskforce and Council of Elders and the full results of the survey will be shared with you soon.
In the meetings we cautioned against aged care turning into a political football, in the hope a sensible approach to funding reform will be taken by all sides of politics. It’s essential to ensure a safety net for those with limited resources and ensure that any changes in tax or consumer contributions are phased in gradually, aligned with the individual’s capacity to pay.
All-in-all, it was a very successful week, with much follow-up work to do.
