House debates
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Questions without Notice
Veterans
3:03 pm
Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source
As a minister in a government that had surpluses for most of those 10 years, why was action not taken then? I think that is a question that also has to be asked out there within the community in terms of the bona fides of those present here today.
The situation with respect to the government’s position in response to the Podger review into military superannuation is that we agreed to consult with the ex-service community and the defence community post the last election, subsequent to the release of that report. We did and the response from those communities was, ‘We don’t like it; we don’t want it.’ That has produced a dilemma for the government—there is no question about that. My commitment, and I have made it quite public, has been that we will be releasing a position on military superannuation in the next few weeks. I will be ensuring that that is there for the ex-service community and the defence community to consider in the lead-up to the next election. I am committed to doing that and the government is committed to taking action.
John Griffiths
Posted on 6 Jul 2010 1:35 pm
It's a sad thing Minister Griffin, that your Govt now finally intends to do something about military super indexation - based on your Govt's past performance, military superannuants are not holding their breath.
At least the Coalition has committed to providing a fair indexation system for military siperannuants ( the same index used for aged pensions) as from 1 July 2011.
And now with an election a few months away, we suddenly see you are going to maybe do something. Pardon me for being cynical. You and K Rudd made promises to fix our super before the election in 2007. The result? You conducted another flawed review and gave us nothing. You should hang your head in shame. Do you think that any military superannuant will believe your party now, after the failed promises you failed to keep during this term. Once again, it has taken the coalition, to look after those who have served the nation in war and peace, in our military forces.