Malcolm Turnbull overstates the case re the former Howard Government's attitude to pensioners

It's a sad fact of life that when politicians speak of pensioners they automatically refer to only one section of the community - older people who have retired.
They know there are other types of pensioners, but they usually choose to ignore them as inconvenient little distractions.

So when the Liberals Malcolm Turnbull said last Monday; "We've been standing up and fighting for pensioners and retirees in opposition as we did in government," he definitely didn't mean those on a Disability Support Pension.
The former Howard Government was remarkable for treating disability pensioners like lepers and repeatedly denying them the Utilities Allowance and the one-off cash bonuses given out in the wake of federal budgets from 2006.

Sadly, Kevin Rudd was also none too keen on giving disability pensioners the one-off bonus, but at least he and Cabinet did extend the utility allowance to include this group.

It will be interesting to watch how the Rudd Government tries to cut disability pensioners out of the full measure of whatever increase in pensions or allowances is finally recommended by the Pension Review committee in February 2009.

It's almost bound to happen this way, because the group is not that large when compared with retirees, isn't a forceful lobby and contains some of the most vulnerable and socially isolated individuals in our society, those with a psychiatric disability.

This strange form of political myopia and unthinking discrimination reflects less on these pensioners and more on how our politicians see Australian society through a prism of their own self-satisfaction.

Right now Prime Minister Rudd and Community Services Minister Macklin are not covering themselves with glory by urging a go slow on implementing any interim change to pensions generally while waiting for the final Pension Review report.

In the meantime, many of those in the Northern Rivers on Disability Support Pensions struggle to meet the costs of basic food, shelter, clothing, transport and medical care in a regional area which has few viable support systems available to them.

"A discussion paper prepared by Jeff Harmer, head of the Families Department, and released yesterday, shows the singles rate of only 60% of the combined couple rate is lower than the 62.9% average for the major Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. The Australian proportion is behind Belgium, the US, Britain, New Zealand, Austria, Canada and Ireland."

Full August 2008 Pension Review Background Paper