Therese Sloane, 73, may have voted in 18 more elections than Ms Thorne, but the swing-voting pensioner shares her younger counterpart’s shock at the petrol bowser, pain in the hip pocket and despair on behalf of young Australians trying to buy a home.
Compared to late last year, Mrs Sloane, an Ermington resident in the north Sydney electorate of Bennelong, pays $10-20 more in groceries each week and $25 more to fill up the tank.
Pensioner Therese Sloane, 73, is wary of “band-aid solutions” and is concerned about Australia’s mounting debt.Credit:Wolter Peeters
But Mrs Sloane says she’s wary of “band-aid solutions” like the six-month cut to the fuel excise and the one-off $250 payment to pensioners. “I don’t like that [Josh Frydenberg] came out and is using the phrase ‘temporary solutions’,” she says.
“To me, it’s just because it’s an election year, they’re all going to give us a little bonus to make us feel happy for a few weeks.”
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Mrs Sloane says she would prefer to see longer-lasting initiatives such as a “better deal” for pensioners, saying the recent increase of about $20 wasn’t enough to keep pace with cost of living.
Watching the budget announcement, she’s disappointed aged care hasn’t been prioritised. “My husband was in aged care and it left much to be desired,” she says.
“The other thing I’m concerned about now is our military,” she says, welcoming more spending on national security but saying she wants to see it spent “now, not in 10 years’ time” in order to feel “safe if anything untoward happens.”
Jacqueline Maley cuts through the noise of the federal election campaign with news, views and expert analysis. Sign up to our Australia Votes 2022 newsletter here.
‘Kind of insane’: Petrol prices a worry for young and old even with cut
Source: Philippines Alive
