Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

In response to the honourable member’s question, I would say to Mr and Mrs Stafford that when it comes to the upcoming budget they will not be a dollar worse off when it comes to their bonus payments—and that is our guarantee. The reason it is our guarantee is that these are among the most vulnerable Australians and, therefore, they need to have an assurance from the government and from the parliament that their payments are in order. It is not exactly the assurance that they had from the previous government in its election commitments on this matter. The previous government’s policy, contained in the ‘Coalition government policy: Election 2007’, on this very question says:

If re-elected, the coalition will consider continuing to pay these bonuses—

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