Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Eden-Monaro for his questions and his long support and advocacy for his veteran community. He is someone who stands up for his community very strongly. He is a very loud, clear and cogent voice. He is someone whose advice and counsel I receive quite regularly.

First of all in terms of the DFRDB, I thank him for his advocacy. We took to the last election a very strong DFRDB policy. It was supported very strongly by those here on this side of the House—the member for Bass, the member for Brisbane, the member for Ryan and the member for Eden-Monaro. They were vociferous in their support for it. Labor's 2007 election document said that a Rudd Labor government would maintain a generous military superannuation system in recognition of the importance of the ADF. But then what did they do? Nothing. They put in place the Matthews review, which was designed to ensure that the full indexation of DFRDB did not occur. That is what they held onto.

Three times in this House we put up private members' bills and other bills to successfully get it through. Every time the member for Batman and the member for Werriwa opposite voted against it. They had a chance to step up, but they voted against it. We took it to the election again. I remember standing there with many of my colleagues here. We took it to the election again and had overwhelming endorsement. We then legislated it through the House. Many of those around here spoke well of it. It went through the Senate. It passed the House of Representatives and the Senate and, as a result, in 13 days, when it takes effect on 1 July, 57,000 DFRDB and DFRB superannuants will be better off. That includes 813 retired Defence Force members in the member for Eden-Monaro's electorate. He stood up for 813 retired Defence Force members and achieved that indexation. This is an initiative that has been a long time coming, and I am pleased to report that the budget fulfils the financial requirements of the government. We have put the welfare of our people and their families first, alongside free ADF health care, alongside bringing back things like the ADF gap year and other programs—we are putting our people first. The coalition's policy applies to those aged 55 and over, and takes indexation in line with CPI, PBLCI and MTAWE.

Contrast this to what Labor did at the election—under pressure, the former member for Eden-Monaro ran out there and said, 'We need a policy too; and we will make it apply from about age 60.'

An honourable member: It wasn't as good!

Nowhere near it! It was not fair; it was unfair indexation, and it was in response to some bad polling. This side—the now member for Eden-Monaro, the member for Ryan, the member for Bass and the member for Brisbane—we all stood up for a policy on principle. The Labor Party got a shock from polling, and thought they would rush something through. Their rushed veterans' policy for DFRDB sits alongside, 'Let's move Fleet Base East' as one of the great thought bubbles.

The member for Eden-Monaro also asks about the experience from a major alliance partner, the United States, in what their view was of the defence force being used as an ATM. Their view came through very, very strongly—let me quote John Kerin again, from the Australian Financial Review of 25 May 2012:

The nation's top defence analysts warn that the Gillard government's deep cuts are threatening the future of the United States alliance and Australia's status as a middle power.

Senior executive after senior executive, from Kurt Campbell through to former defence secretaries, came out and publicly harangued the government for what they did—publicly and privately, I should say—harangued them for that they did.

Put the alliance second, because if you steal from Peter to pay Paul, Labor's view was that Paul would vote for you. And that was the problem. The welfare budget went through the roof whilst defence was cut and cut and cut again to meet Labor's misguided priorities. We will not do that as a government—we will stand up for what is right; we will be consistent and we will be disciplined. We will have a structured planning process; a structured force structure review; a budgetary process that connects to that, and we will have a defence force our nation can be proud of.

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