Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

What the Australian public and the Catholic Social Justice Council would know is that during 11½ long years the Howard government did nothing to increase the pension rate, absolutely nothing. What they know is we took immediate measures in the budget. You can cry crocodile tears now. This government is focused on its efforts to try and assist pensioners. We made a huge down payment in the budget; we are looking at tackling the structural problems. If the opposition were serious, they would not embark on stunts, they would focus on the real issues. What we know is that in 11 long years they did nothing and now they go for stunts. They could not even raise this issue in question time on Monday. That is how serious they really are. I urge them to take the public policy considerations seriously rather than focus on stunts because, increasingly, they are an irrelevant rabble.