Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. Even as he asked the question, the Leader of the Opposition looked uncomfortable because he knows how hypocritical his and the Liberal Party’s performance is on this question. He understands that Australians would look at the record of the Howard government and ask themselves why the arguments put by the Leader of the Opposition did not persuade the Howard government to act in 1996, 1997 or 1998, and so on and so forth up to last year, when he sat round a cabinet table and the then responsible minister, Mal Brough, said to him in cabinet that we should put the rate of the base pension up—and the Howard cabinet said ‘No’. There is no walking away from that fact. There is no pretending that that fact does not exist. At least when they sat over here, the Leader of the Opposition and the former members of the Howard ministry were honest enough to say to the Australian people, ‘No. 1, we love Work Choices and, No. 2, we are going to do nothing about the pension’. That is what you said to the Australian people over 12 long years.

Well, this government has acted with practical measures in the recent budget, practical measures that will mean pensioners will have more money—$128 received this week—in the form of the utilities payment that we increased to $500. Pensioners had the $500 cash bonus out of the budget. We understand that these measures will make some difference but that there will still be pressure on pensioners, which is why we are engaged in looking at the question of the pension, comprehensively, through a review.

Can I contrast that with the approach of the Leader of the Opposition, who has cobbled together a measure that he was amending on the run over the weekend—’Oops, I forgot veterans’ was his approach, and there was a quick cobbling together, an amendment of the motion. And, as the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs has indicated in the House, yesterday and today, even with those changes there are veterans left behind. As the minister responsible, Minister Macklin, has indicated in the House today, there are two million pensioners left behind.

The Leader of the Opposition knows that this is an exercise in politics. It is not delivering a solution. The government is working on a solution to take pressure off Australian pensioners. We have delivered the budget measures. The one thing the Leader of the Opposition does not explain, whether he is here in Canberra or overseas in Venice, is why he did nothing about the base rate of the pension when he was in a position to make a difference, around the cabinet table. Why did he do nothing about it? Until he provides an explanation of that point, everything else that he says will be viewed in its shadow. Until he answers the question: ‘Why did he do nothing?’ then the things that are being said in question time today will be weighed for what they are worth by members of the Australian community.

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