Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

but I confess that not many people would share that view! But, with respect, there is nothing in the standing orders that says how one faces the chamber.

Nevertheless, let us keep moving in relation to this issue of defence pay. We know that twice under Labor there were wage increases given to our defence personnel that were under CPI. So when Labor does it, under Senator Wong and Senator Conroy, it is okay, but if the coalition might do it, it would be the most heinous crime ever! It is this sort of immaturity and this sort of incapacity to come to grips with the issues before the nation that really does defy any explanation. I say to the crossbenchers: how can you vote for a censure motion being moved by a former Labor minister who oversaw two pay increases that were below CPI on the basis that we might be doing that in relation to one payment in relation to CPI? If that is a sin they are doubly guilty, and they have no credibility to be able to move a censure motion on that basis.

Further, we know that not only did they not increase according to CPI; they actually backdated certain reductions and left military personnel serving overseas with debts that had to be repaid. And they come in here appealing to the crossbenchers, saying, 'Haven't we looked after the defence forces so magnificently,' when they have done so, so much worse in this space.

But let us be very clear: as a government, we are committed to our defence personnel. We are committed to our defence industries. But when you are left with a situation of a trajectory of getting this nation into $667 billion worth of debt, where we are borrowing $1,000 million a month just to pay the interest on the existing loans, what do you do? Well, I, as a minister on behalf of this government, went to the remuneration tribunal and said: 'All parliamentarians, the Minister for Defence, the Chief of Defence Force, all our judges and other people, should not be given a pay rise at all; there should be a zero per cent pay rise for the Chief of Defence Force, for the Minister for Defence, and for the Prime Minister,' and so, in those circumstances, a 1.5 per cent deal was, as the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal determined, a fair offer in all the circumstances. Do we really want to keep borrowing money from overseas to pay the wages? If we pay the wages today of parliamentarians and defence personnel and public servants with borrowed money from overseas, who has to repay it? It will be our children and our grandchildren who will have to repay that debt. We are not going to be party to that sort of inappropriate economic management. We have full confidence in Senator Johnston. (Time expired)