Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As always, I will try to bring a reality check to this debate. I am not going to indulge in the populist political rhetoric that all others on the other side have engaged in in this debate and which one particular senator continually engages in. I want to bring reality back to the situation.

On Remembrance Day, I attended a lunch at the RSL in the garrison city of Townsville, the home of Australia's biggest army base and a place where there are more than a proportionate number of veterans living. I spoke to people at the dinner about this particular issue because I, like everyone, was a little concerned about it. The people at the dinner—admittedly, senior officers and heads of organisations—said to me, 'We, the senior officers, understand the reason for this. We understand that the government has no money and that the government is borrowing $1 billion every three months to pay interest on Labor's debt. We understand that this is not a time for a big increase in pay.' They also said to me—and I agree with them on this—'But if public servants and politicians are going to get an increase beyond 1½ per cent then there will be an uprising in the streets.' I said to them, as I say now, 'I will be part of that.' If politicians and public servants get an increase above what has been offered to the Defence Force then we should all protest—and I will. I make that very clear now.

We all have to play our part in addressing Labor's approaching $600 billion of debt which costs us $30 million a week in interest. We all have to play our part. When I raised this with some of my colleagues, they said, 'You will recall, Senator, that your pay was frozen on 1 July.' I must say that I had not focused on that. I had not realised it. But politicians have been told that they are accepting a pay freeze for one or two years. I am not quite sure which it is. You can look it up yourself. But politicians are getting a zero per cent increase—