Chief Advocate for National Seniors Australia Ian Henschke, interview by Liam Bartlett

Interview of Ian Henschke by Liam Bartlett courtesy of 6PR.

Intro
This is the morning programme with Liam Bartlett

Liam
Everyone talking about the cost of living increases, of course, especially at the petrol bowser, with the ever rising cost of oil and the situation in Ukraine, still continuing, but to closer to home. Also, of course, the various rises stemming from that and other issues around the place generally the overall rise in produce and various consumer goods, meat, vegetables, you name it,  at the checkout. There is that growing agreement that there will be an interest rate rise at some point mid-year, whether that will be June or July remains to be seen. But will largely be, I think held hostage little bit by the American situation on that. In the meantime, of course, we have a Federal election coming up, and that’s another story on top of that. But, there is, I was going to say bit of light on the horizon, but how much light, the age pension and other social security benefits from next week, from next Monday, will, in fact, from Sunday, kick in, on Sunday night it will deliver five million Australians. Their largest pay rise in almost a decade.

So from March, 20, the rate for a single person, receiving an age pension, or a disability support pension, or carer payment will rise by $20.10 a fortnight, $10.05 a week, $987.60, for a couple it climbs, $30.20 a fortnight. So $15.10 a week.

The Social Services Minister said, the increase was the largest since 2013. Joining us this morning is Ian Henschke CEO of the National Seniors Association. Good morning Ian.

Ian
Oh good day Liam I’m the Chief Advocate for National Seniors, and it’s interesting, isn’t it? That when you look at the pension, it’s still a very low amount. And that’s why, when we put in our Federal budget submission, this year, we called for yet again, a independent tribunal to set the rate of  the pension.

Because one group that’s particularly suffering at this time are those that rent. And you’ve got to remember that not everyone owns their own home when they get to retirement. In fact that figures changing pretty rapidly. And they reckon by the middle of this Century, about 57% of people will own their own home when they get to retirement stage.

So we’ve got to think about those that are renting, and we’re calling for more Commonwealth rent assistance  but more importantly, more housing, because that’s still the big problem. We’ve got an Australia not just for young people, but for everyone to get into their  own homes becoming more and more difficult.

Liam
What do you think most pensioners will think about this increase? Ian, I mean, 2.1%, if we just look at it as a number, 2.1% and the Minister says, it’s the largest since 2013. Well, will currently the inflation rates above that.

Ian
Well, this is the, issue. The pension is, set by a cost-of-living measure and inflation rate, which has a higher. They actually work it out that way. So this is not the a large increase. It’s simply trying to keep up with the increase in inflation. And we had a pretty low or zero inflation rate that went for quite a few years now. So, when I say it’s the largest increase, it’s not an increase over and above what they would have got as a pensioner, just because of the cost of living increase.

So then that’s a little bit of spin if you like this being put onto it there, but what we should remember is that? And I believe you spoke to Gina Rinehart last week about this. And this is that we’ve got a very distorted pension system in Australia, that actually discourages people from earning any extra money because they lose 50 cents in the dollar then they pay income tax on top of that and she she’s been very strong in support of our campaign to let the pensioners work and keep that extra income especially at a time when we need a stronger economy.

We need people in the workforce to do various jobs, but we’re punishing there so, we’re saying in our federal budget submission they should be doing that as well. The government needs to adjust that. So, there’s a whole range of ways the government could improve our social security system. Not just leave it the way it is. And say, oh, look. This is the biggest increase you’ve had for 10 years, you know, sit over there and be happy with it, you know, we can do a lot better in Australia.

Liam
Well if I can just paraphrase Gina Rinehart from a moment, she said she had a great line and she said ‘the way it is at the moment pensioners can be taxed 69% if they work, and not even billionaires are taxed 69 percent.’

Ian
Well, that’s right. I mean, it’s a fundamental thing. In fact, I’m I think I said, when I first started campaigning on this. So, I mean, we actually raised this matter after the last election, because there was a thing called the retirement income review, remember that?

Liam
Yeah

Ian
In fact, it happened because the last election, there were a lot of issues around older Australians, and retirement incomes and all that. So, you know, where we hope we will win this campaign to allow, pensioners to work and pay income tax on the earnings. Not pay a punitive rate of 50 cents in the Dollar Plus income tax. Now, it’s amazing Liam that you had Gina Rinehart on your programme last week speaking, so strongly about this and yet we don’t hear anything coming back from government?

Liam
No.

Ian
So I hope they will listen and they’ll listen to it particularly. Now that people are really going to be struggling with the cost of living.

Liam
What do you think? So you think it would be a vote winner wouldn’t you? And you think as you’ve just pointed out very eloquently that there are so many reasons that we need reform in that space. Ian we’ll have to leave it there. But thanks for your time. This morning,

Ian
Always a pleasure, Liam anytime.

Liam
Ian Henske Chief advocate for the National Seniors Association.