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

The government does not support the suspension of standing orders. We are now in the last two days of the parliamentary sitting. There is an orderly agenda before us and I simply put to senators that if we are going to have, yet again, another hijacking of the agenda in this the last week as a result of various coalitions of convenience across the chamber, I think we are doing ourselves a disservice in the management of not only this place but also the agenda and the matters the Australian people wish us to deal with.

Let us not fabricate any difference in this place about who cares for the welfare of the Australian Defence Force. We all do. As a cabinet minister I live with that responsibility every day, as does the Prime Minister and as does the Minister for Defence. I trust we all live with that responsibility.

The reality is, in relation to Defence pay, that Australia is burdened with an interest bill of $1,000 million a month, and that is being borrowed simply to pay the interest on the debt that has already been sustained. All spending has to be sustainable, even Defence spending. It is just not feasible to borrow even more money to pay for higher wages. The government needs to find an additional $16,000 million just to replace that which Labor stripped out of Defence during their six years in government.

In answer to a question earlier this week, I indicated what the CPI increases were and what the actual wage increases were for the Public Service, and over the last decade there was a differential of 14 per cent—the wage increases being 42 per cent and CPI 28 per cent. In relation to the ADF, just on wages the differential is some 10 per cent, and that does not take into account the, in general terms, quite generous allowances that do come with Defence Force service.

I also say to honourable senators who might be attracted to this proposition that the Remuneration Tribunal itself has said that it has a long-held view that setting remuneration for one office by reference to another office does not lead to defensible or meaningful wage outcomes. If we want to start setting wages in this place, we can get rid of the Fair Work Commission, get rid of the Remuneration Tribunal and get rid of the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal.