Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

There are 6,087 veterans in the member for Spence's community, and he does a wonderful job advocating for every single one of them. One of the things that we are proudest of in our first three budgets is the support that we've been able to show for Australia's veterans—not the platitudes and place holders that we heard from those opposite but real dollars, making a real difference. Here I want to acknowledge the efforts of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs; the Assistant Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Mr Thistlethwaite; the Minister for Defence; the Prime Minister; and the Minister for Finance, in the other place. All of us on this side of the House respect and recognise the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, and we take seriously our responsibilities to them after they leave the military.

When we came to office, there was a backlog of 42,000 claims. These weren't just abstract numbers on a spreadsheet, but they were real people with real families who have made and continue to make a real contribution to our country. Those opposite should be ashamed of themselves for leaving those veterans hanging for so long. We were determined to clean up the mess when we came to office, with $230 million in our first budget for staff to process the claims and now another $477 million in this budget to fix the system as well. Because of our efforts, an extra $6½ billion will flow into the pockets of our veterans, who deserve every single cent of our support. The shadow Treasurer thinks this is overspending, but we don't. Those opposite diminish the efforts of the public servants who are working around the clock to get this money to the veterans who deserve it.

Support for veterans is part of our efforts in the budget to help with the cost of living, and today's inflation numbers show why that's so important. As I said yesterday, the monthly inflation figures are more volatile and they don't compare the same goods and services, and that's why they bounce around. This month, petrol, private health insurance and international travel were some of the biggest influences. Our expectations for inflation and our forecasts aren't changed by today's data. Electricity prices were up 4.2 per cent, but that would have been 13.9 per cent were it not for the rebates that those opposite voted against when they voted for even higher inflation.

When we came to office, inflation had a six in front of it, and now it has a three in front of it. It has moderated overall, but we need it to moderate further and faster, and that's why the budget had such a big focus on fighting inflation and easing cost-of-living pressures. Our support for our veterans is a really important part of those efforts.

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