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

I suggest to Senator Edwards that he keep a very close eye on those opposite when their heads start to drop. They had two opportunities to support the proper indexation of pensions—one in this place with the Fair Indexation of Military Superannuation Entitlements Bill that I introduced, which the Australian Labor Party voted against, and in the other place they could have voted for the fair indexation bill but again they refused to do so.

In an eleventh hour bid, a week out from the election, they brought in a half-baked attempt to address the issue. No-one was fooled by it. The veterans were not fooled by it. The veterans were not fooled by the former minister, Dr Kelly, and he lost his seat of Eden-Monaro. Of course, Senator Lundy cried crocodile tears for years about this issue but, when given the opportunity to come in here and support those 57,000 people and their families, she was left wanting. (Time expired)