Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

In doing so, could I say how disappointing today is for 57,000 people who expected that this fair indexation bill would go through this chamber. I thank those who have contributed positively. I thank those who have contributed positively. I thank the member for Fadden, the shadow minister, who has worked tirelessly to ensure that this bill got to this place. Those who oppose it stand condemned for not providing fair indexation to those 57,000 men and women. You will stand utterly condemned from now on, for time immemorial, for doing so. I thank Senator Fielding for having the intestinal fortitude to take on those who are trying to force him to oppose this. Thank you, Senator, for agreeing to this bill.

I say to the Greens: you cannot say on one hand that you will do something and then, when it comes to the crunch, do another. There is another senator here, whose name I will not mention, who has done exactly the same thing, and she will stand condemned in the community of Canberra. I say this finally: the Australian Labor Party cannot effectively vote for a motion in the House of Representatives and then come back into this place and vote against it. It is utterly duplicitous behaviour. You are not prepared to test the floor in the House of Repre­sentatives, and you came up here because you knew you had the numbers. You stand utterly condemned. On behalf of this chamber, I apologise to those 57,000 people who have been, quite frankly, utterly let down by this parliament.