Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for the answer, and I do accept the difficulty because of the overlap. I acknowledge that that is a difficult question to answer. I am simply looking at the demographic. The fundamental question for which I am really after an answer—and I think people will be interested—is: how many veterans will be worse off? Whilst we have got a rough number—I suppose around 200 out of that demographic—it is difficult to know and I acknowledge that. There are a number of other questions. I will try to keep this as short as possible, because I know that time is very tight. Given the tightening financial circumstances that all Australians are facing—not much comes from your side and potentially from ours that is not prefaced by the difficult economic times that we are in—clearly veterans would be feeling the pinch. Obviously, in consideration of making this sort of change, you would have done some sort of modelling to have a look at the socioeconomic impact on this demographic. Could you share with us some of that modelling or what you think is going to happen? You provided me with some answers about how many. Would you be able to provide any details of any other modelling you have done on the impact on these people?