Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Amendment (Fair Indexation) Bill 2010 put forward by Senator Ronaldson on behalf of the coalition. I want to make a few points about this legislation and about the fiscal circumstances. There are certainly many programs, many amendments, many requests for further government expenditure, which are worthy. In government, generally the choices are not between a worthy cause or a worthy program and a program which is not worthy; generally the choices are to prioritise between many different programs, all of which have their own merit. This is a bill which has responded to the calls from some members of the Australian community, some superannuants, about the amount they are receiving in their retirement. I have no doubt their views have a sound basis. I have no doubt their views are very strongly held. But the key issue in government is to seek to make decisions between different programs, to seek to make decisions to prioritise expenditure and to always recognise that there is a finite amount of government expenditure, which needs to be well managed to meet a whole range of meritorious programs. It is reasonable for people in retirement who have served in our armed forces to expect a reasonable level of support. It is also reasonable for the Australian community to expect continued funding for health, for Medicare, for our school systems, for infrastructure, for our age pension system—and so the list goes on.

But this debate is not about the merits or otherwise of what Senator Ronaldson is putting up. This fundamentally is a debate about fiscal responsibility.