Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

But you are not upfront with the Australian community about how you are going to identify the savings to pay for it or how you are going to identify the savings to pay for the $5.4 billion worth of defence expenditure cuts which we have put into this budget. You have not explained that to us either. You have an obligation, when you go to these meetings, to be straight. The problem is that you are not. People are not silly. They are not going to be confused forever. There will come a day when they will ask you the vital questions and you will not be able to respond to them because you do not have an answer. It is very clear to me that, despite your protestations, in your heart of hearts and indeed, I bet, in the shadow finance minister's heart of hearts, the shadow Treasurer's heart of hearts and, I suspect, in the Leader of the Opposition's heart of hearts, you all agree with Senator Minchin. They agreed with him when they were in the Howard government as members of the cabinet and they agree with him today. Of that I have no doubt. It is just a proposition which is not sustainable.

I say to the opposition: I would think again. The only commitment we have received out of you this morning is a commitment not about what you are going to do about the $5.4 billion worth of defence savings but a commitment—two commitments really—on leave travel entitlements and superannuation indexation for the DFRDB recipients. That is it. I say to you that you need to do a lot more to tell the Australian community about what you intend to do in both the Defence portfolio and the Veterans' Affairs portfolio.

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