Mr GEORGANAS (9:37 AM) —The Commonwealth Public Service and Defence superannuation pensions are indexed to the consumer price index, not male total average weekly earnings, as is the case with the age and disability support pensions. On 24 April 2007, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced a CPI change of 0.06 per cent, which meant that superannuation pensions received no twice-yearly increase. While the CPI has risen by 1.2 per cent in the last June quarter, Commonwealth and Defence superannuation pensioners will not gain an increase until January 2008, which is the next assessment date. In the meantime, these superannuants will continue to endure price increases—such as 9.1 per cent for petrol and 1.7 per cent for food in the last June quarter—without any increase in their pension. This simply is not fair.

The Howard government has flatly refused to review the method of indexation, and this is in spite of a Senate select committee having concluded in 2001 that the current indexation method is unfair and is eroding superannuants’ living standards. The committee chairman stated:

That was in 2001, and the value of defined benefit superannuation schemes has continued to be eroded since that time compared to the age pension. What proportion of Commonwealth superannuants, what number of senior Australian households, having worked on their superannuation towards an expected pleasant and rewarding retirement all of their working lives are now expected to live on less than the age pension? The Prime Minister tells superannuants that Australian families have never been better off. That is very wrong. Australian families, whatever their age, are doing it tough, and in many cases even tougher as time goes by. Many people in the electorate of Hindmarsh, be they in employment, raising a family or retired, certainly do not share this conclusion of the Prime Minister’s. They will conclude that this strangely expeditionary government is out of touch, has priorities out of balance and a self-perception blissfully out of focus.

When Labor pressed the government on this very issue at the Senate estimates committee hearings in May 2007, the Howard government refused to provide the formula used to calculate the cost of changing the indexation method. This refusal to provide essential information to calculate future Commonwealth superannuation liabilities is an attempt to stymie debate on this issue. This government refuses to be accountable to ex-public servants and military personnel about their superannuation.