“I hope with the new government a better decision is made in the interests of West Australians and northern Australia, to relocate the planned navy maintenance investment away from the people and port of Fremantle, and relocate to the north-west, to Cape Preston,” said Mrs Rinehart after Saturday’s election rout of Scott Morrison’s Coalition government. Mrs Rinehart reiterated her belief that senior citizens and defence force veterans should not lose their pensions if they choose to work for an income, saying both the community and the economy would be better off if they were able to participate more at a time of labour shortages. “Enabling our economy to grow via urgent and significant tape cuts is the best way to increase jobs and opportunities for our youth, our females and our entire population, and the best way to enable wage increases and standards of living to rise, in turn providing revenue for necessities like, healthcare, emergencies, police, kindergartens, our elderly and more.”Restrictions on stopping pensioners and vets from working, restrictions that mean they can only work for a few dollars a week without losing all or part of their pensions, and onerous paperwork, must go urgently,” she said.

Many pensioners who shared stories of struggling to survive on the age pension would not give their names, out of shame or a fear that they will be seen as a burden to their families. “We’ve got roughly one in four older Australians living in poverty. And the fastest growing group of people who are in poverty are single women who are renting.” Ian Henschke is the Chief Advocate for National Seniors, a not-for-profit organisation that campaigns for better outcomes for older Australians. He argues that if pensioners were allowed to work without their pension being cut, it is likely that their combined efforts would contribute more income tax and a greater boost to Australia’s GDP that the savings recouped from the government by cutting their pension. “Don’t penny pinch off the pensioners. Change the taxation system,” he says.

18 May, 2022.

The Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie has today committed, if re-elected, she will introduce legislation in the first sitting of the new Parliament to allow senior Australians to work without unfair penalties to their pensions. “It simply makes moral and economic sense to introduce legislation that will allow our seniors to remain or re-join the workforce and not be unfairly penalised for it.” Australia is in the midst of a labour crisis and we have a willing and able workforce ready to go. It’s time to unleash our seniors,” Ms Sharkie says.

The sole SA Nationals candidate Jonathan Pietzsch, standing for the seat of Barker, has called on a returned Coalition government to allow pensioners to work without the threat of losing their pension. He said a National Seniors survey showed one in five pensioners wished to continue working, but only 2.9 per cent were. He said this meant that Australia was missing out on hundreds of thousands of keen and skilled workers, which had a flow on effect to the economy.”Increasing the Pensioner Work Bonus in 2 levels, one for those working in the city, and another for those wishing to work in regional areas where the worker shortage is even more critical, is a viable way to address our immediate labour shortage and will pump billions back into the economy – it truly is a win/win/win,” Mr Pietzsch said.

With thousands of job vacancies needing to be filled across the country, there are growing calls to allow seniors to work without taking away their aged pension.