But the president of the Pensioners Federation, Edith Morgan, says the Howard Government clearly believes its priority should be with farmers and the wealthy who have family trusts rather than old people who rely on fixed incomes. Shane McLeod in Canberra. Pensions could be shaping up as the next big blip on the Government's radar, if today's protest is anything to go by. While the Government maintains that it has increased payments in real terms since introducing the GST, some pensioners argue that it doesn't make up for the impact of the new tax. Edith Morgan is the president of the Pensioners and Superannuants Federation.
Many people are worse off.
The other thing that he keeps saying, that he will cushion the effect. When the GST was introduced last July, the Government increased pensions by 4 per cent. Two per cent was a direct increase, the other 2 per cent a pre-payment of today's indexed rise. For weeks John Howard has been deflecting Labor claims that it's a claw-back. But today he's being forced to respond to pensioners' claims that the compensation is not enough.