Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening not only to join with my parliamentary colleagues Senator Johnston, Senator Ronaldson, the member for Fadden and all the coalition in recognising that military service comes with dangers that other public servants never face and that this service to our country is valued by every Australian but also, more importantly, to join in the fight to see a fairer way of indexing the closed DFRDB and DFRB pension schemes.

To serve in the Australian military is to serve and protect every single Australian. The very nature of this service deserves recognition in the form of financial security that is fair and reasonable in meeting living standards now and in the future. The men and women of Australia who had to be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country should be treated fairly and equally, like age and service pension recipients are.

On Anzac Day, when our country commemorates the brave deeds of Australians and New Zealanders, servicemen in my electorate of Swan spoke to me about the unfairness of the indexation of the DFRDB and DFRB Schemes. Their expectations for fairness had been raised at the 2007 election, and this government should honour the commitment it made then. The government has broken many other commitments, but this commitment was to men and women who served our country and helped to preserve our way of life and the freedoms we enjoy. There is not too much that I agree with this member on, but I do acknowledge the member for Lyne for being a vocal supporter of changes in the way that these pension schemes are indexed and call for his support in pushing Labor to follow up on their promise, made in 2007 election.

This is a shameful episode of Labor thinking it is perfectly acceptable to give hope to people who genuinely deserve a fairer indexation of their pensions by promising in 2007 to do just that and then completely ignoring them. That is why the coalition made a commitment on 27 June 2010: we promised to provide a fair indexation for superannuation pensioners under the DFRDB and DFRB Schemes because it is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do because the coalition believes in the unique nature of military service. Australia's service personnel deserve to know that they have financial security.

There is a bill currently before the Senate, the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Amendment (Fair Indexation) Bill 2010, which from 1 July 2011 would see DFRDB and DFRB superannuants aged 55 and over have their superannuation pensions indexed in the same way as Australian government income support pensioners have their superannuation pensions indexed. Twice yearly, pensions will be indexed to the whichever is highest of the consumer price index—the CPI—male total average weekly earnings or the pensioner and beneficiary living cost index, the PBLCI. Currently, DFRDB and DFRB members have their superannuation indexed only in line with movements in the CPI. The bill before the Senate will provide over 56,000 retired Australian Defence Force personnel who are members of the now closed-off schemes with an indexed superannuation pension that better reflects changes in the cost of living. For those personal not yet aged 55, the benefits of the coalition's commitment will be felt in the future, when they do turn 55. The Future Fund established by the previous coalition government will be pivotal in meeting this commitment. The Future Fund was established by the previous coalition government to ensure that the long-term cost of Australian civilian and military superannuation liability was made affordable. This was to be done by locking away today's savings for tomorrow. I heard the member for Oxley tonight speaking on another bill criticising the coalition for doing this. He spoke about borrowing as being okay. He said we should all be out there borrowing, all businesses do it. Well, they do not all do it, and if he knew anything about businesses he would be aware that not all companies in Australia borrow. What he failed to mention was the profligate spending and utter waste of taxpayers' money by this economically incompetent government.

The coalition believes changing indexation arrangements is the first and most important step in a wider process to reform military superannuation arrangements. We need ongoing dialogue with the ex-service community to work out further areas for reform, particularly those which seek to improve the lives of those most in need of support. The coalition has consulted widely and listened carefully to the views put forward by the veterans, ex-service people, ex-service organisations and current ADF personnel. Labor would do themselves no harm by at least attempting some sort of consultation with these people. Labor had no military superannuation policy at the last election and continues to have no policy on military superannuation reform. Labor has forgotten about our service men and women. It is time for Labor to get real on this issue and with bipartisan support veterans and ex-service people across Australia can look forward to more fairly indexed payments, a fairer outcome which reflects the unique nature of military service. I encourage people who support this important coalition policy to contact the Independents and let them know this is important to them. (Time expired)

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