Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs. I refer to the minister's pre-election comments in June 2013 about military pensions. I quote:

CPI has not been a measure of cost- of-living for at least 15 years. Aged pensioners don’t have their index assessed in this way so they are falling further and further behind. It’s basically unfair where they’re at and they deserve a fair go and we’re going to give it to them.

Minister, why then did an official from the Department of Veterans' Affairs confirm at Senate estimates—with you sitting next to them—that the government's first budget slashed $65.1 million from the pensions of 280,000 veterans, war widows and orphans of veterans by using CPI-only indexation? How is this $65 million saving to the government not a loss to the weekly income of veterans and their dependants?