Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This decision to suspend standing orders is important because we believe fundamentally that veterans' orphans should not be political targets of this government. I get that the government has different priorities from those of many Australians. I get that. But when this government can dream up a scheme which takes $260,000 from 1,200 veterans' orphans, this is a government who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The reason we should suspend standing orders is that this proposition on veterans' orphans that the government is carrying out is a sign of a bigger malaise in this government. This is a soulless government who will undermine everything that we hold dear in this country. That is why we should suspend standing orders. They have never seen a group of the vulnerable that they are not interested in kicking. They will pick on the unemployed, they will pick on the disability pensioners. They will undermine Medicare, they will attack the minimum wage. This is why standing orders should be suspended. They are not interested in equal pay for women, they are not interested in supporting a more positive relationship with our near neighbours. This is a government who deserve to have this motion disallowed, and that is why we should suspend standing orders.

We all know that they have got 900 pages of cuts which they will not reveal to us—900 pages of the same DNA as that which will see the government attack veterans' orphans. That is why standing orders should be suspended. The real problem with this issue is that we have a government who is not interested in standing up for all Australians. They are only interested in standing up for some Australians. On the issue of the veterans' orphans they say that veterans' children will be receiving payments anyway and they will not notice this $211 gone. The only people who could say that are people who have never tried to make ends meet on the existing pensions and entitlements and who believe that $211 is nothing at all. They are wrong. It is something.

I believe that when Australia's defence personnel serve overseas they should have the peace of mind of knowing that when they come home—or if they come home severely injured or totally and permanently disabled or, indeed, if they make the supreme sacrifice—that they have a government and a parliament who have their back. There is no test in this country which this government can pass about priorities when it says, 'We've got your back but, by the way, we're going to chop $211 from your children who you love very much.' This is not adequate policy from this government. That is why we should suspend standing orders.

I make this point: if the children of parents who have made significant and supreme sacrifices for this country cannot trust a government, how can the rest of us? The problem with this government, and the reason we should suspend standing orders, is that they have the wrong priorities. They want to whittle this country down, they want to divide this country, they want to attack the vulnerable, and they are too arrogant to admit when they get it wrong. (Time expired)

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