Yes the pension is means tested, like most of Australia's welfare system (Dole, family tax benefit, baby bonus etc). This keeps the cost down and ensures that only people who need help get it rather than people who can look after themselves.
Yes, you can earn the same as someone else during your life, you save, they spend. They get a pension you do not. But these are extremes - you can still have a reasonable amount of assets before losing any pension and have to have lots of assets before you lose all of it. Perhaps not and ideal system, but you can't keep track of what people have spent over the 65 years before retiring...
Yes you can rort the system by giving money to relatives hoping to get it back later. As long as it is a gift and not a loan and it there are time limits.
As for your comment about paying tax all your life and then paying more when old, if your assets are in super, you pay no income tax, so are living off the rest of those who do pay income tax.
And if you have a really expensive house, lucky you, as you afford to help those less fortunate.
