Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hinkler not only for the question but for his tireless work for the veterans’ community. He is a terrific advocate for the veterans not only in this parliament but within the Howard government. Last week at the RSL National Congress in Melbourne the Prime Minister announced a comprehensive $330 million package to assist veterans. This package said that, from March 2008, all veterans’ affairs disability pensions will be referenced to both CPI and male total average weekly earnings in the same manner that the service pension is currently indexed. In addition, the general rate table, the table of compensation that is paid for pain and suffering and loss of function, will be increased by five per cent for all of the table from March 2008, and that will benefit some 140,000 disability pensioners. In addition, more than 13½ thousand veterans who receive the extreme disablement adjustment payment, which is for people with profound lifestyle impacts from their service related conditions after their working life, will also receive a fortnightly increase of $15 from March 2008. These are real, substantial benefits for the veterans’ community. Not only were these announcements extremely well received on the night; the veterans’ community has acknowledged and recognised what a terrific package it is, including ‘Blue’ Ryan from the TPI Association. ‘Blue’ is not well at the moment; we wish him well with his recovery.

What we also saw at the RSL National Congress was the spectacle of how Labor is developing its policies. Whilst the Prime Minister was making this substantial $330 million commitment, the Leader of the Opposition and his shadow spokesman were carving out swathes of the Leader of the Opposition’s speech, realising that the package that the Prime Minister had offered was infinitely superior and infinitely more principled and would deliver real benefits beyond the policy that Labor had announced only hours earlier. To hang out the shadow spokesman in the way the Leader of the Opposition did, who was spruiking the ALP policy three hours earlier, only to see the Leader of the Opposition junk half his speech, junk the fourth effort Labor had at veterans’ affairs disability pension policy, to embrace what the government had done was quite a spectacle. Then, some three days later, I found a request to my office from the opposition saying, ‘Can you share with us the detail of the package and the costings and how it actually works—and the projections?’ Is that the action of an economic conservative? I do not think so. They are reckless actions. At least, to the credit of the Leader of the Opposition, he has decided that ‘me too’ is the right way to go when it comes to veterans’ affairs policy.

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