Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

You are rapidly moving down that list of favourite National Party senators, Wacka! But that will not distract me from pointing out that this government has broken another promise: 'no cuts to pensions'. That is what they told the Australian community, and this is a clear admission by Senator Ronaldson, disguised as cross-portfolio savings measures. He confirmed cuts to 280,000 veterans, war widows and orphans of veterans. That is just disgraceful. That is a lie told by Mr Abbott, by Senator Ronaldson and by all members of the front bench of the government before the election. No wonder the community is so disillusioned with this government.

Let me repeat what the now Prime Minister and the now Minister for Veterans' Affairs would tell anyone who would listen to them before the election: indexing veterans' pensions to the CPI was not good enough. Here is what the Prime Minister said when speaking at the RSL national conference in 2012:

If it’s inadequate just to lift Centrelink pensions by the Consumer Price Index, it’s even less fair to apply solely that index to those who have risked their lives for our country. Loyalty goes both ways.

That is what the Prime Minister of Australia said before the election. But what has happened now? It is not admitted; it has not been stated publicly. It was hidden and disguised heavily in the budget papers. So what we find is that loyalty does not go both ways when it comes to this Prime Minister. The loyalty of this government ran out when it introduced its first budget. What did we see hidden, tucked away, in the May budget? We saw the pensions of 280,000 veterans and their dependants linked to CPI.

What did the Minister for Veterans' Affairs say in June 2013, just on 12 months ago, on the cusp of the election? What did he say about linking pensions to CPI? He said: 'CPI has not been a measure of cost of living for at least 15 years. Age pensioners do not have their pension assessed in this way, so they are falling further and further behind. It is basically unfair, where they are at, and they deserve a fair go and we are going to give it to them.' That is what the minister said. That is what the Prime Minister said. But now that they have been elected the truth comes out, and they slash the pensions of 280,000 veterans, war widows and orphans of veterans. It is a disgrace.

As I said, this is another broken promise; it is another Liberal lie. And there is no-one here who wants to stand up and defend that answer in the taking note of replies so far. Senator Bushby is not going to try and defend this. Senator Cash is not going to try and defend this. And certainly Minister Fifield is not going to try and defend this. They just want to hope no-one notices. Well, it is unfair. They said this before the election, and they have done the opposite after the election. This saving comes straight out of the hip-pockets of veterans, their war widows and their disability pensioners. This is just one in a long line of Liberal lies. They told the Australian public one thing before the election—played them for mugs—and then started slashing in education and health and in pensions to veterans, war widows and orphans. We have had more Liberal lies, time and again. Well, this Senate is not going to stand by and play the cover-up game that those opposite have been trying to play. (Time expired)