TRANSCRIPT OF DOORSTOP, BOB HAWKE COMMUNITY CENTRE,
MELBOURNE 23 JANUARY 1988
E 0 E PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke what was the message from the
pensioners this morning?
PM: Well it seemed to be a particular interest in the area
of the threshold for tax and I'm told by my members of the
Task Force that that's an issue which has come up in theiLr
various meetings around Australia so it's obviously
something that we are going to have to look at. Some of
their areas of concern are outside our constitutional power
as you would appreciate. They were looking for greater
concessions in the area of transport. One suggestion, for
instance, was made that there ought to be free transport on
public transport between the hours of nine and three. Well
that's something obviously within the area of State
Governments and some of their concerns were local
Governments like concessions, further concessions on rates,
water rates and that type of thing. So what is useful is
that we are now, as a result of this process which will be
continued right around Australia, by the end of this process
we'll have a very clear view of sorts of issues which are of
major concern to the elderly citizens. We will feed those
concerns into our decision making process.
JOURNALIST: Are the pensioners likely to get more money in
real terms in the next Budget?
PM4: I can't lay down now what will happen in the Budget.
All I can say is that in our six years of Government we have
significantly increased the real value of the pension some
eight percent real increase in pension and that of course is
against the significant real reduction under John Howard.
So we have shown in the six years in Government that we are
about increasing the real value of pensions. And certainly
against the pathetic record of the conservatives who prattle
and make all the noise and talk about their concern for the
family and the elderly, what was the record? They cut the
real value of the pensions. we increase it.
JOURNALIST: Are Australian pensioners relatively well off
or how would you describe the state that they are in?
-2-
PM: Well, no it would be unkind, indecent to say relatively
well off. You've got to say relatively to whom? I mean, if
you said relatively to the poor of India, they are well off,
but that's not a relevant comparison. If you asked
relevant to the wealthy in this country, no they are not
well off. What we've tried to do is to gradually increase
the relationship of the pension to the earnings of the
community generally. That's the sort of relationship which
they have regarded as important. Now when we came to office
the pension as a proportion of average weekly earnings was
22.7 percent. Now we said we would try and get it up to
We've done that. It's virtually at 25 percent now, so
that's the sort of relative comparison. What's the average
community wage, average weekly earnings and what's the
pension as a proportion of that. As I say, since we've been
in office from the legacy that we inherited from the
conservatives, the noise makers but the do nothing
merchants, I mean they are marvellous at saying ' this is our
concern, we love the elderly, we'll look after them'. Well
they walked out of office having reduced the real value of
pension, having left it at 22.7 percent of average weekly
earnings. We've put it up to 25 percent. That's the
relativity that matters and that's our relative performance
compared to the conservatives.
ends