By Leith van Onselen

Following on from my earlier article explaining why aged entitlements must be included in the Government’s proposed reforms of the welfare system, the Labor Opposition has demanded that the Abbott Government quarantine the aged pension from welfare cuts:

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has raised fears the Government will target the age pension in the crackdown despite the Government ruling that out. “If the Abbott Government before the election said they were going to slow the rate of increase to the aged pension, they should have told people,” he said. “People could have voted on whether or not they thought it was a good or bad idea. But this sort of sneaky, cynical, promise-breaking, Abbott-Government tactic won’t wash and the Labor Opposition will not be party to mugging old age pensioners”… Mr Shorten says people on the aged pension do not “deserve to be on the chopping block”. “I think all Australians understand that people on the age pension have paid taxes their whole life,” he said… But a spokeswoman for the Minister reiterated that the review was looking only at the DSP and Newstart allowances.

While politically expedient, this is a disgusting position for Labor to take. As highlighted earlier, focusing cuts on only the working-aged population, whilst ignoring the swathes of wealthy retirees receiving government support, is highly inequitable and inconsistent, and will place the Budget in a precarious position as the population ages.

Does Shorten honestly believe that it is fair to expect a shrinking band of younger workers, many of whom are already struggling under the weight of expensive housing and high mortgage debts (fostered onto them by their parents’ generation), to pay ever increasing amounts of taxes to subsidise the growing army of retirees – many of whom are in a relatively stronger financial position – whilst also enduring the brunt of Budget cuts?

Returning the Budget to a sound financial position requires ‘shared-sacrifice’ from all segments of the population.

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