The human services minister, Alan Tudge, has criticised unions for launching a robocall blitz against pensions changes, describing it as a “disgraceful campaign” and claiming 90% of pensioners will be better off or unaffected.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has launched a robocall campaign targeting the changes, which are due to come into effect on 1 January.
In the call, a woman called Leanne says she is worried about her dad who “has just had a letter from the government saying Malcolm Turnbull will be cutting his pension”.
“He’s a retiree on a fixed income and really needs the pension just to get by each week.
“Him and mum worked hard their whole lives, so how can the government suddenly make changes now, and just before Christmas?”
Under the changes, singles with savings and assets of more than $547,000 (excluding the family home) will lose the aged pension, while couples with savings and assets of $823,000 will lose the pension.
The policy passed parliament last year with the support of the Greens, under the then social services minister Scott Morrison.
The changes are expected to push 88,000 people off the pension, reduce the pension for 225,000 but grant 170,000 pensioners an increase of $30 a week. The changes were supported by the Australian Council of Social Services which said the pension system should serve the most needy.
On Thursday Tudge told Radio National the robocalls were “another disgraceful union campaign aimed at putting fear into vulnerable Australians”.
He said the campaign suggested “everybody’s pension is going to be cut”.
Tudge said more than 90% of pensioners would be better off or no worse off, and only pensioners with “high assets above and beyond their family home” would receive a cut.
“Our changes are about making the system more sustainable in the long run.”
Tudge said that the 88,000 people who will lose the pension would only have received a “very small part pension as it is” and had significant assets “probably in excess of $1m” to pay for their retirement.
Tudge said in addition to Greens support, Labor had “effectively supported” the budget savings in the election. He called on Labor leader Bill Shorten to “distance himself from this disgraceful union campaign”.
In comments to Fairfax media, ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said it would use “any means” necessary to fight the changes which would upend the carefully planned retirements of thousands of pensioners.
“Instead of addressing the substance of the policy and the damage their cuts are causing, the government continues to play the man and complain about the way we are bringing the issue to their attention,” he said.
Last week a parliamentary committee recommended that messages to voters including robocalls and texts should state who authorised them in a bid to prevent a repeat of Labor’s Medicare text fiasco at the 2016 election.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has repeatedly criticised Labor’s use of robocalls in the election campaign, including claims the government planned to “privatise” Medicare.
