Despite his own upbeat campaigning for Saturday's state election, former senator Nick Xenophon has drawn the ire of South Australia's labour movement and become the focus of radio and online advertisements attacking his parliamentary voting record.
SA Unions' claim is overblown. Only two legislative changes affecting age pension payments have taken effect since Mr Turnbull became Prime Minister. Both were legislated and voted on during the Abbott government. The first of these capped the amount of income from defined benefit schemes that seniors are able to exclude from the pension's income test. However, there is no record of Mr Xenophon having voted for the measure, and his office did not provide details of his support. He did vote for changes to the age pension assets test, which took effect on January 1, 2017. These amendments raised the "free area" threshold, below which a person's assets do not affect how much pension they receive. But they also doubled the rate at which payments are reduced for every $1,000 of assets above the threshold. Three experts told Fact Check that the results of the changes were mixed: some people with fewer assets will have had their pension increased, while relatively wealthy people with greater assets will have had their payments reduced or cut entirely. Figures issued recently by the Department of Social Services demonstrate this double-edged result, with 165,200 people benefitting from the changes and another 370,000 (roughly 9 per cent of pensioners, nationally) losing out. So, while the age pension itself has not been cut, some people's individual entitlements have been affected. This is not the case, however, for people who are less well-off. For example, home-owning couples with assets of less than $375,000 and individual homeowners ($250,000) will not have been affected. SA Unions also suggested to Fact Check that the Turnbull Government's Welfare Reform Bill was further evidence of Mr Xenophon voting to cut pensions. However, these changes do not affect seniors payments specifically and the bill is yet to pass the Senate.
Fact check: Did Nick Xenophon vote with Malcolm Turnbull to cut the age pension?
['Nick_Xenophon', 'South_Australia']