Non-core packages in most Linux distributions are frozen within a distribution release. This means they don't receive any updates until a new stable release of the distribution is made. For Debian, this happens every 2 years on average. This is a design decision, as Debian's definition of "stable" means "not changing" rather than "not broken".
If you want more recent packages, build from source, upgrade to Debian testing or use another Linux distribution such as Fedora. (Ubuntu LTS isn't much better in terms of up-to-dateness of universe packages.)
