Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I have gone back to page 1732 of the Hansard of Thursday, 24 March. In the earlier debate on this bill I moved a funding proposal for the new indexation method for Defence Force superannuation pensions, which is at the heart of this bill—that is, to adopt the Treasury recommended mining super profits tax. This would take a tiny amount of the super profits tax made from the massive resources boom currently being experienced by this country—which has disadvantage almost everybody outside that resources boom as we face increased interest rates coming down the line in two months, a high Australian dollar, a squeeze on business and a squeeze on pensioners as food prices go up, amongst other things—and fund this very bill that is now before the Senate.

But there was a division on the bill, and listed for the noes in the Hansard on that funding mechanism for this bill are Senator Humphries and Senator Ronaldson. So the opposition voted down a legitimate funding option for this legislation—and the opposi­tion have not come up with one—because it was against the Abbott mantra of not having any tax placed on anything, including the foreign owned corporations that are ripping billions out of the country at the moment and sending it to rich shareholders overseas. Senator Humphries and Senator Ronaldson, and indeed the whole of the opposition and the government, voted down that clear and Treasury recommended option for funding the legislation.

In proposing this legislation the best that the opposition can do is to bring forward a funding mechanism that would divert moneys not spent by the defence forces into funding this bill. Unfortunately for them, those moneys had been co-opted into the government's own budget for spending on other priorities. So we now have a stoush between the government and the opposition which we did not need to have. If they had supported the Greens option then we would have had this bill moving towards the funding that is required and the recipients getting a fair go.

We have here a lot of sound and fury from the opposition, but a failure to take responsibility, as if they were in government, to take up a proper funding option that is Treasury recommended. Instead they have said no to that because they take the political point of view that tackling the mining companies to pay a fair go is more important than funding the entitlements that are outlined in this bill.

I said in my speech during the second reading debate—and Senator Humphries is correct on this—that we wanted to extend these benefits to the whole of the public sector. The opposition will not do that. Instead, they are supporting a two per cent cut for the people currently in jobs in the public sector—a squeeze on public servants—when it is entirely unnecessary in this age of a resources boom in this country. I submit to the Senate that where private members' legislation has big costs involved we need to be mature, grown up and financially responsible—and the government notes that the liabilities for this legislation will extend to $6 billion in the future. The opposition have to be able to point to how they are going to finance that. In that, they have been a complete failure. The govern­ment opposes the legislation so it does not believe it has to work towards it. The Greens came forward with a Treasury recommended option for funding this legislation, and the opposition voted down their own bill when they voted down that funding option.