Ms PLIBERSEK (Sydney—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:53): Every time the Liberals and the Greens do a deal, people suffer. They did a deal to block our proposal for asylum seekers to be taken to Malaysia. They did a deal for debt unlimited—remember debt unlimited? They did a deal to block the CPRS. And now they have done a dirty deal to cut pensions. Every time they do a deal, people suffer. Nine times before the election, this Prime Minister promised no change to pensions. We have seen an attempt to cut the full rate pension that we on this side stopped. We had to stop it in the Senate, but we stopped it. We defended full rate pensioners. Now they have come back for the part rate pensioners. People who have saved and worked hard all their lives and done the right thing—done what every government in Australian history has asked them to do—are now going to cop it in the neck. It will affect 330,000 part pensioners immediately from 2017, but 700,000 people who are still in the workforce will join them in the following few years. The government are trying to pretend that these people are millionaires. They keep talking about pensions for millionaires. Let's have a look at what you have to have in the bank to have your pension cut. If you are a couple with your own home, you have to have $451,500. If you are a single, you have to have $289,500. That is what you have to have before having your pension cut under this mob. What do you mean when you say 'assets'? Of course it includes your super. A bit of super is great; it is good that they have saved for their super. But it is also the family car. It is also your household effects. It is also a boat or a caravan. I know a lot of people in the minister's electorate, in the Sutherland Shire, might have a boat tied up down at the jetty. It is the surrender value of insurance policies. Your hobby collections are counted, as are your household contents, including your furniture—maybe the furniture you have inherited from your parents. It is your personal effects; that means your mum's engagement ring might be counted in this test. So you are talking about people who have $451,500 if they are a couple, to last them—what? Twenty years? Thirty years? Government members interjecting— Ms PLIBERSEK: Yes, a pensioner couple who own their own home and have more than $451,500 in assets will have their part pension cut. If you do not know that that is the effect of your legislation, you should know. People who have been told this are deeply offended by the idea that they are millionaires and welfare bludgers. We have the minister up here saying that these people are different from taxpayers and taxpayers should not have to pay them a pension. They are taxpayers. They have been taxpayers all their working lives, and they have planned for their retirement based on the promises that they were made by successive governments that, if they saved hard, they would do all right and—I will tell you what else—based on a promise from this Prime Minister, nine times before the last election: 'We're not going to change the pension.' They are deeply offended by being told that this is welfare, and they are offended by your proposition that they should sell down their assets for their retirement, which should be a contented and happy time for 20, 30 or 40 years after they retire—because we know the Treasurer thinks that they are going to be living till well over the century mark. That is how long their assets have to last them. We know that within 10 years half of all retirees will be affected. Single pensioners will lose as much as $8,000, and couples will lose as much as $14,000. These people are part pensioners, because they have saved hard, and somehow this makes them evil in the eyes of the government; it means that they should be penalised. But who should not be penalised in the eyes of the government? People with $10 million in their superannuation accounts. We have 475 people who have more than $10 million in super. Mr Howarth: They don't receive a pension, Member for Sydney. Ms PLIBERSEK: No, they do not receive a pension; they get a tax concession. So people who are getting $75,000 a year and up—people who are getting $1 million a year tax free—are fine, but those with $25,000 a year are going to see an $8,000 cut.(Time expired)