Labor set to pickpocket pensioners

· Government vote down motion to match Liberal commitment on housing freeze

· From September next year, a quarter of the pension increase for public housing tenants will go to the State Government in extra rent

From next September the State Labor Government will take around a quarter of the hard-won weekly pension increase in higher public housing rents.
In a move that shows how out of touch Labor has become, the Government voted down a motion in Parliament that would have enabled pensioners to keep their entire pension increase.
The Liberals, in response to calls from the Federal Government from the Prime Minister down, committed to extending the exemption from rent increases from September 2010 to September 2012.
The Liberals argued that in these tough economies times, with cost of living increases including higher energy bills, water rates, bus fares and car registrations, it was important that the pension increase not be gobbled up by increased rents.

Julia Gillard wrote to the State Premiers to tell them the 12 month limit they had imposed as a rent holiday was not acceptable to the Commonwealth.

But today, when the motion was put, the State Labor Government voted against giving pensioners a fair go and now face the wrath of what the Federal Treasurer says is an unjustified claw-back.
Brett Whiteley MP Shadow Minister for Health and Human Services