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

A unique opportunity—and, as Senator Edwards said, a shame. It was indeed a disgrace. We will index the military superannuation pensions the way they should be. Can anyone in this chamber tell me—I know from our side that they can, they will have the answer; but can anyone from the Australian Labor Party or the Greens tell me how it is appropriate to index age pensions and service pensions differently for these men and women? It is outrageous, it is unfair and it is inequitable, and this chamber had the opportunity to address it in June last year and it did not do so. That is to the eternal shame of this chamber. It is to the eternal shame of the Australian Labor Party and the Greens, and they stand utterly condemned for not addressing fair indexation when presented with the opportunity to do so.

Don't forget, this was about fair go. This was the opportunity to give 57,000 Australian families a fair go, and a fair go was not given. I know there are many, many Labor members who quite rightly have been inundated with emails and other correspondence from veterans, not just from those on the DFRDB and the DFRB but from many veterans who are absolutely incensed about what has happened.