Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear 'Hear, hear' from the member for Moreton and he knows, as well as we do on this side, how important it is for those young people to be able to go home to their relatives and families. They go to far-away military bases to do their training, their deployments and they deserve the opportunity to go home, to refresh and regroup so that they can then continue their wonderful service to this nation.

According to the member for Fadden, the cost of reinstating the flights is just $15 million a year. That is money that would be well spent by this nation on behalf of those people who serve this nation so well. I am ashamed to say, though, that the military cutbacks of $5½ billion have cut such a huge swathe out of our nation's defence portfolio. It is a very important portfolio.

Another thing that I think the Labor government ought to urgently reconsider—we have heard disingenuous motions; we have seen people who have made a lot of noise by getting all hairy-chested about it but, when it comes to actually laying their cards on the table, they have not done one thing about it—and that is the fair indexation for our veterans, our veterans who gave this country so much, who put their lives on the line in the defence of the nation, who now deserve priority, fairness, justice and equity. They are not after anything that they were not entitled to. They are not after anything more than what they signed up for, but they do need to be properly and fairly indexed. I speak regularly to my good friend the former deputy commandant at Kapooka, Bert Hoebee, who writes me almost daily emails about this subject. I feel for Bert and I feel for his veteran colleagues, because I know how much they are hurting and I know how much they feel that this is unfair. It is unfair. It needs to be fixed, and if it will not be fixed by Labor then it certainly should be by an incoming coalition government—and let that be soon. I am hoping that we see justice, reason and equity to fix it on behalf of these veterans who gave this country so much.

Debate adjourned.

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