Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I trust the parliamentary secretary opposite will go and give a lecture to his leader, because the Prime Minister’s performance here in the debate on the censure motion this afternoon was an absolute disgrace. He showed absolutely no care or compassion at all. The question was put to him: would he rise to the dispatch box today and say to those carers and the people they care for that their apprehension and their feeling of uncertainty as to whether or not they will be able to cope could be laid to rest. All the Prime Minister had to do was to come to the dispatch box and say that the lump sum payment would continue. That was all he had to do.

I turn to this fascinating use of weasel words. First of all the Prime Minister said, ‘We won’t leave these people in the lurch.’ Really? What does that mean? Secondly, ‘They won’t be one cent disadvantaged.’ Really? That can only be delivered if that lump sum payment is made, because many of the people who receive that bonus payment, which is a tax-free bonus payment will be subject to taxation if it is rolled into a pension-type payment. Every individual circumstance will be different. There is no way in the world that you can make a collectivist guarantee that each individual will not be one cent worse off. The only way that that can be done is to continue the tax-free lump sum payment. The Prime Minister had it within his capability to do that today.

As the shadow minister for veterans’ affairs, let me tell you about the plight of one war widow who receives the carers payment. She is 80. She looks after her mother, who is 105. She keeps her mother out of an institution, out of an aged-care home, by managing the best way she can. At Christmas her refrigerator broke down, so she had to go out and find someone who would give her 12-month terms to pay it off. The mother, who is 105, has a pet. The pet is important to her. The bonus payment would assist with the cost of an operation that that pet requires.

The bonus payment is used for all sorts of things that enable people to have a payment ready and gives them an advantage that they might otherwise be denied. An example is the wives of people who are TPIs. The wives are not in receipt of gold card coverage because they are looking after their husbands who are still covered by the gold card; however, they can put the one-off payment they receive—because they are in receipt of either the carer payment or carer allowance—towards their own private health insurance. People can make individual decisions about how it can best suit them. The lump sum is what comes through as being important. It is preferable to have it as a lump sum rather than dribbled out over several payments—rolled into a pension-like payment. They can then make a payment which is meaningful for them. It has been factored into their way of life.

The Prime Minister, when he wanted to be elected, said, ‘We will be economic conservatives.’ Every time we made a statement, he said, ‘me too’. The much-vaunted utility allowance, which was talked about today, was our policy. A ‘me too’ meant that the legislation was introduced. This lump sum payment was also a ‘me too’ policy. The Prime Minister said, ‘me too.’ With regard to veterans, we have 33,000 TPIs—totally and permanently disabled people. About one-half of those people will be affected by this policy to get rid of the lump sum payment. When it comes to extremely disabled people, again a large number of people will be affected. When I listened to the Assistant Treasurer try to make an equation between an able-bodied working person and a carer of someone who is totally disabled, I found that comparison obscene in the extreme. In the speech by the parliamentary secretary, he started to ask for compassion. He needs to give that lecture to his own leadership. He certainly needs to instil it in the Assistant Treasurer. These people cannot go on until May with this indecision. (Time expired)

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