Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Senator McLucas would know, or at least she should know, that there is no change in this budget to existing arrangements for indexation of Commonwealth own purpose outlays. Senator McLucas would know that the wage component of wage cost indexes continues to reflect the most recent safety net adjustment from the AIRC. There is no basis for suggesting that the growth in funding under any new indexation arrangements will be any less than under existing arrangements. The government has not factored in any indexation savings as a result of the workplace relations reforms.

To date, the wage component of the wage cost indexes has been based on the Australian Industrial Relations Commission’s safety net review decision as a measure of non-productivity related wages growth. We will continue to index government costs consistent with current policy. There will continue to be a wage and a CPI component. The forward estimates include indexation of funding based on current parameters. We neither plan nor forecast wage cost savings in the future.

Labor is purporting that indexation policy has changed when clearly it has not. Throughout the public debate on workplace relations reform, Labor and the unions have repeatedly misrepresented the facts about the content of the government’s reform package. Their failed attempt in the High Court to obtain injunctions and declarations to stymie the government’s information campaign is one example of their desperation to prevent a factually based debate, something which Senator McLucas continually refuses to indulge in. Now that Labor is unable to secure a one-sided debate by legal means, it is resorting to misleading statements in the political arena.

Last night’s budget clearly indicated again the Howard government’s overwhelming commitment to the aged care sector of this nation. The Howard government will invest more than $6.9 billion in 2006-07 in supporting older Australians in both aged care homes and their own communities.