Sky News AM Agenda
E&OE
KIERAN GILBERT:
Throughout the morning we have been mentioning on the front page of the Australian Financial Review the story that the government is considering the option of including the family home in the pension assets test. With me for reaction to this story is the Social Service Minister Scott Morrison. Mr Morrison thanks for your time. I understand you have already ruled this out?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Yes the government has no plan and is not considering including the family home in the assets test for the pension. Certainly groups come and talk to me about a wide range of issues and I have had very good discussions with the sector and some of them have advocated that but that is not a plan the government is considering.
GILBET:
Well the seniors groups themselves seem happy to go ahead with this. If this is something that would make the system more sustainable why should it not be considered if people live in multi-million dollar homes and still receive the pension?
MINISTER MORRISON:
There are a lot of issues to be canvassed coming out of the intergenerational report and the ageing of the population and how people can better access the capital they have available to them to support them as they grow older. There are ways to do that without going down this path. I think it needs to be pointed out that the number of people that people are referring to in large homes on that sort of capital holdings receiving the pension is minute. Changing that issue does not totally change the prospect for the growth in pensions over the next 20 years. That is a very marginal issue in the overall cost of the scheme. The more significant issues deal with the whole of the scheme and that is what the government needs to focus on.
GILBERT:
But it is not going to happen?
MINISTER MORRISON:
It is not going to happen.
GILBERT:
What about phasing it in later though…
MINISTER MORRISON:
No.
GILBERT:
…So baby boomers and current pensioners won’t be affected or even those soon to be pensioners but down the track the government should consider it?
MINISTER MORRISON:
The Government has no plans for that in the budget, over the forward estimates, it is just not a matter that we are considering. There are genuine issues though about when people actually want to sell the family home. Currently if you want to sell the family home and you want to be able to access more of your capital, improve the quality of life as you grow older well you get heavily penalised for doing that under the system and that is an issue that has been raised with us as well and that is something worth discussing as part of the debate. What also is worth discussing is for people to be able to support themselves as they grow older then we need to encourage them to work longer. That is only when they can work longer, their healthy to work longer. People working longer is a good think for the country, it is good for them, it is good for the taxpayer. So there are a lot of things we have to address coming out of this intergenerational report. This proposal that has been put on the front page of the Fin Review and I could have cleared that up fairly quickly if that question had been put to me directly yesterday, is not on the table.
GILBERT:
What about the front page of the Australian now, this is another story that surrounds a similar issue. This suggests that 260,000 Australian households have a net worth of more than $3 million and yet are enjoying welfare payments of about $800 million a year. What is your reaction to that?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well again it is about how you structure the system to encourage people to draw on their own support for as long as they can…
GILBERT:
Sounds like there is a fair bit of fat there though.
MINISTER MORRISON:
…that is whether they are working and encouraging them to work or it is being able to enable them to make decisions about how they use their own assets without incurring massive penalties. It is no different there in other parts of the system. People can have greater assets but actually quite cash poor. At the moment the system penalises people for making their own choices about changing that direction. But we found out when the NSW Labor Government introduced a tax on the family home in land tax and Chris Bowen I think from memory back then was one of the advisers to the State Labor Government, I will stand corrected on that if he wasn’t, but we learnt then that the only side of politics that wanted to put a tax on the family home was a Labor Government. They eventually got rid of that and saw the wisdom of that after the public rightly made their voices heard on those issues.
GILBERT:
You said it was only a small number that sit on very I suppose highly valued assets. This is 260,000 Australian households. That is a lot.
MINISTER MORRISON:
I think the figures you are referring to there go well beyond the type of debate that has been raised in terms of the assets test for the pension. I think that is a very different issue. Of course the government has got to look at the various issues we have right across the portfolio to look at the growth in expenditure because it is the growth in the expenditure particularly – not just for the age pension but right across the welfare system there is a range of payments that are growing very, very quickly and we need to ensure that the system is sustainable to cope with that. But doing things right at the margins is not going to change that fundamental issue and getting – encouraging people to work longer, encouraging people to take the resources that they have and better use them for their own retirement they are the changes that we are interested in.
GILBERT:
Ok, I want to ask you a couple of questions about your former portfolio, the Guardian this morning says that you defied advice in denying an individual a chance to apply for a visa. Advice from your then head of Department who said that this individual claims against him were false. His name is Sayed Abdellatif and a father of six from Egypt. What is your reaction to that story this morning?
MINISTER MORRISON:
I don’t get in the habit of commenting on commentary and that report I can’t verify that and I don’t think they can either. I never get into the habit of discussing what advice was provided to me as Minister and I am quite sure that any advice they believe they have would not have been the full picture of the brief that was presented to me. That case did involve some security issues at the time and I am not going to go into any further detail about that. The decision I made at that time was made at that time. It is for other Ministers to deal with how the situation may have progressed until today.
GILBERT:
And a year on from the death of Reza Barati still no one convicted of that, is that a worry to you and the government?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well that is before the Papua New Guinean courts, there are two people who were charged over that matter and that matter is proceeding through the courts as we said it would. That is a good outcome at least in terms of those inquiries and investigations leading to that outcome. It has got to work its way through the justice system there in Papua New Guinea. That was a dreadful and terrible event, there are enormous changes that were put in place after that event and those changes actually ensured that in subsequent periods of unrest that that sort of outcome didn’t happen again.
GILBERT:
Finally, Malcolm Turnbull last night paid tribute to your performance as Immigration Minister in reducing the number of children in detention. Mr Turnbull also said it was a sad day for him and the Liberal party when Philip Ruddock was demoted as – from Chief Government Whip given his service to the party. Do you agree with him that is was a sad day for the party?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Firstly, I appreciate Malcolm’s recognition on getting children out of detention that has been a team effort. The whole team has been part of the policies that have got that result. Now there is a bit more work to do in that area and I know Peter Dutton is following through on that but the fact is we have reduced the number of children in detention by more than 90 per cent. That is not something the Labor party can do, the Labor party’s policies failed to achieve that outcome. Our policies have achieved what they wanted to achieve but simply couldn’t. Philip Ruddock as I have said many times – the greatest Immigration Minister that this country has ever had, an outstanding Attorney-General, a great servant of the Liberal Party and of this Parliament as the Father of the House and he has the respect of all colleagues and I know in particular of the Prime Minister.
GILBERT:
Do you think it was a sad day to see him demoted?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Philip Ruddock I don’t think was hanging around in the Parliament for more than 40 years to become Chief Whip. When he took over that job at the request of the Prime Minister, he did so out of loyalty and service and he understands like we all do that the roles we serve in the Abbott Government are at the pleasure of the Prime Minister. That is how politics works. Philip knows that more than anyone and he has handled himself with great dignity.
GILBERT:
Minister Morrison thanks for your time.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Thank you.