The pensioners are revolting :)

Retired members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union were joined by other concerned community groups in Melbourne to protest at the Abbott/Turnbull gov's cuts to the old and vulnerable in successive budgets.

They tell a familiar story of those of us getting on in years and/or facing disability, having to face living at or below the poverty line due to housing stress.

I mentioned this the other day, those of us who are the poor and forgotten by the gov. The AMWU addresses those same issues. Say it brother.....

AMWU Retired Members’ Division National Secretary Frank Cherry told the Melbourne rally that low-income families and pensioners had been condemned to living near or below the poverty line by the harsh Budgets of the Abbott and now Turnbull Governments. 

He echoed concerns of the Fair Go For Pensioners (FGFP) community coalition that senior Australians risked being ignored at this election, with the freezing of Medicare rebates, $54 billion in cuts to health and hospital services plus reviews of disability support pensions hitting the disadvantaged hardest. 

FGFP President Roger Wilson said the Coalition’s generous tax cuts to businesses and tax subsidies to property investors meant slashing services and hiking costs to the most vulnerable - including older people on pensions. 

“Jobs and growth won’t trickle down to the disadvantaged from these toxic policies,” Mr Wilson told AMWU News. 

Mr Wilson pleaded with the crowd to put the “Libs last this election”, saying that they must “reject any government that seeks to increase the costs of doctors’ visits, prescription medicines, axe dental care for families, erode disability support and cut critical aged care services”. 

Other community groups concerned about the Coalition’s planned cuts to aged services and the housing affordability crisis also spoke at the rally. 

Daisy Ellery, Chairperson of the Housing for Aged Action Group told the crowd that “the Turnbull Government doesn’t care about people on low incomes, living in housing poverty” and warned both leaders to not “underestimate the power of the old persons’ vote”. 

Mr Cherry also said that AMWU retired members agreed Coalition Ministers were out of touch with older Australians. 

On a recent visit to Canberra, Liberal Ministers did not keep appointments and instead sent their staffers in their place who were “difficult” and “had no concept of the plight of pensioners and were unable to appreciate that pensioners were living at or below the poverty line”. AMWU