David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

As we have seen time and time again, this is a government which has an apparently inexhaustible appetite for military commemorations and parades, and an apparently unquenchable appetite for its enthusiasm to be seen around and with soldiers. Indeed, we have seen them eager to militarise those civilian and constabulary operations wherever they can, but we have also seen that underneath this veneer of publicity seeking and style management, there have been some very egregious assaults on the rights of veterans affairs pensioners. While the government does routinely proffer to the Australian community rhetoric around recognising the uniqueness of military service and the lasting honour that should be bestowed on our veterans community, deeds have sadly not followed those words. This has been brought into stark relief by this government's attack on pensions. You will remember that in the lead up to the last election, the government did two things of significance: the first was to make a very great virtue of their commitment to indexing DFRB and DFDB pensions. As they travelled the countryside promoting the indexation arrangements that they intended to bring to those two pensions, they treated veterans groups and ex-service organisations across the country too long, lucid lectures about the virtues of triple indexation. And yet, when they came to government, all of that rhetoric was abandoned. While the DFRDB pension did have its indexation improved—I might say with both sides of the parliament supporting it—we saw on the other hand veterans affairs pensions suffer the most remarkable attack—an attack that, of course, flew in the face, not only of their rhetoric, but explicit promises made in office. You will remember that on 6 September 2013, on the eve of the previous federal election, Tony Abbott told SBS News there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. With this commitment ringing in their ears, it is no surprise that veterans were astonished to discover, in 2014, that their pensions were indeed targeted by this government, and the triple indexation that was proposed would be abolished. There were of course other atrocities as part of this which included the abolition of the MSBS pension scheme, the attack on ADF pay, but in particular we saw some 280,000 veterans—the recipients of some 310,000 payments—all proposed to have their payments stripped, all proposed to have their pensions declined against the real cost of living.

Successfully, Labor, together with ex-service organisations—the RSL and many others—were able to campaign for this position to be retreated from. But, alas, the government's resolve in attacking pensions of our veterans has not reduced. They may have found new tactics, but their mission has not changed. In particular, last week I received a letter from the Vietnam Veterans Federation of Australia stating their concern that over 12,000 veterans will be affected by the government's continuing attack on pensions. The government's legislation will cause the part-service pensions of more than 10,000 veterans to be reduced and some 2,800 to be cancelled. The VVFA themselves have said:

For those veterans whose Part Service Pension is calculated by the ‘assets test’, the news may be bad.

Veterans have served our country, and they have defended our nation, yet they continue to endure these attacks from a government that wants to be photographed with them but not take proper care of them. Why, Minister, is the Abbott government so keen to attack our veterans—the people who have sacrificed themselves and so much to serve our country?

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