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

Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. The guarantee is clear-cut. When it comes to carers and pensioners and the impact of the bonus system on them, they will not be a dollar worse off. Beyond that, what we have said is that we need to work through ways and means by which those who receive these bonus payments can have payments made to them on a more secure footing into the future. We believe that is a reasonable way to proceed.

It does contrast with the position which has been taken by those opposite on this matter. When we went into the last election, what was the commitment of those opposite? The first thing you look at to see whether a government has had a serious, systemic commitment to making bonus payments to either carers or pensioners is one document: it is called the budget papers. Within the budget papers, you go to the forward estimates and the relevant subprogram entry. What do you find there? You find no commitment at all on the part of our predecessors—none whatsoever. So there has been no long-term commitment by those opposite to these bonus payments in past. That is simply a fact. The fact is reflected in the actual construction of the budget papers.

I then go to the next point, dealing with this in the election context. Here I quote from the colourful document Better support for carers: “go for growth”. Flip over to page 6:

More Financial Support for Carers

This is not ripped out of context; it is in this section. Go to the relevant paragraph, neatly tucked up the end, because you usually tuck things up the end and hope no-one actually gets that far—the last sentence in the last paragraph on the page says:

A re-elected Coalition Government will consider continuing to pay these bonuses ...

That is the first qualifying clause. The second qualifying clause is:

... depending on the economic circumstances at the time.

There has been no firm commitment by those opposite at all—none whatsoever.

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