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

I thank the minister for that, and I acknowledge that perhaps I was a bit cheeky in thinking that those pensioners would expect Australia to recover from the Rudd recession any time soon.

I know we are waiting for this Harmer review to come out, but I just want to put on the record that the coalition would be delighted to have a look at some legislation that affects this particular demographic, in the light of other changes that are afoot at the moment. To us there does not appear to be any reason to look at this piece of legislation right now, with only a portion of the information that we should have available. We know that the Australian people have made a considerable investment in the Harmer review. We do not see any reasonable motive at all for us to look at this legislation in the absence of the most recent information. That is the fundamental reason, part of a multitude of reasons, why we are not supporting the first Greens amendment. At this stage the number of seniors concession card holders is apparently decreasing from 22,000 because of the Rudd recession—