Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Those listening will maybe take some comfort from the fact that I'm not going to scream, carry on or confect this outrage, which is an attempt to cover up the fact that they're not actually talking about the cost of living at all, which is part of the MPI. The fact of the matter is that there's good reason for that—because their leader, their deputy leader and their shadow Treasurer keep talking about ripping billions of dollars out of the budget that goes towards seniors and their pensions—the indexation of those, appropriately, to help with the cost of living and many other things.

But I'll get to the veterans and the other elements that they want to rip out from what the Australian government gives in support of the Australian people, not only for their service, when it comes to veterans, but also because of the fact that many age pensioners, of course, have been paying tax all their lives and it's only proper that we give our senior Australians the support that they need to live decent lives.

Our government is of course managing the economy competently. What evidence do I have for that? Well, we've had two budget surpluses. In nine years, they couldn't pull one. They also racked up $1 trillion of debt. That's relevant. We have halved the inflation, and I think those listening outside of this bubble might have missed that—that those opposite, the coalition, left us with inflation that was at more than six per cent. We have halved that, and we're continuing to put downward pressure on inflation, whilst also assisting Australians with the cost of living.

We're also creating tens of thousands of full-time jobs, and, as the Treasurer said in question time, no government, no Prime Minister, has ever created so many jobs in their first term.

So, that's what we're doing. But, again: what are those opposite planning to do? Well, we know, because the Leader of the Opposition, his deputy and the shadow Treasurer keep talking about ripping out the responsible budget measures where we put significant funding—over $300 billion—into the budget to look after Australians. Now, what is that funding about? Let's just talk about veterans for a minute. Those opposite, the coalition, like to think they're good economic managers, but I've just pointed out a couple of reasons they're not. They also like to point out that they're for veterans. But they fought the establishment of a royal commission into defence and veterans' suicide all the way. There had to be a grassroots campaign, led by the mothers and the veterans themselves, backed by our leader, the now Prime Minister, to get that royal commission established. That's one thing. They also left us with about 42,000 uncleared claims in the Department of Veterans' Affairs. The royal commission itself has said that that massive backlog of claims was indeed causing harm and in all likelihood led to the suicides of veterans. That's shameful.

So, what we've done is put a lot more resources into clearing that backlog of claims, so that Australian veterans and their families are getting the funding they so richly deserve. That comes with a price tag. Those funds are within the extra funding allocated through the budget in a responsible and budgeted way that the Leader of the Opposition is talking about withdrawing, as well as the deputy leader and the shadow Treasurer. They are talking about ripping that funding out of the budget.

Those opposite might remember that the member for Calare, when he was the coalition's Minister for Veterans' Affairs, tried to plead with and then threatened his own political party that he would resign from that post if further funding wasn't put into DVA. But those opposite, the coalition, did not do it. It took a Labor federal government and this Labor Prime Minister to put the funds into the budget, and those opposite are talking about ripping those funds out.

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