Dr JENSEN (6:49 PM) —I wish to speak on behalf of all the pensioners, and especially seniors, who have contacted my office in the past few months to explain that they are finding it increasingly hard to cope financially and asking for help. Many of these Tangney residents are also caring for husbands or wives and, in a few cases, frail parents. We should be rewarding these carers instead of expecting the love of family to effectively subsidise the federal government’s provision of aged care and other associated services to the tune of about $30 billion per annum. Thanks to the enormous pressure applied to the government by the opposition and by the public, savage cuts to the carers bonus were stopped. As a justly indignant Carers Australia said after this year’s budget, ‘Carers are not the cause of inflation—they are the victims of it.’

The huge increases in rents for those pensioners who do not own their home has been exacerbated by the Western Australian state Labor government, which has contrived a remarkable shortage of residential land. The cost of fuel has impacted on the price of everything from petrol at the bowser to all goods transported by road. My constituents, like others around the country, need relief from these sudden increases. They should get it, especially from a government awash with money, having inherited a budget surplus instead of a $96 billion debt. (Time expired)