Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Under the NLAP, they are not covered by the indexation arrangements that we addressed in the last budget. That is because it's under this other partnership agreement. I am aware of that agreement, and I've been talking with the Attorney. It's work that is before the government. Unfortunately those opposite believed that indexation arrangements of one per cent or 1.2 per cent—if you worked in the APS, you got a wage increase of about 1.2 per cent on average over the last decade—was an adequate way to index.

It was lower than inflation, Senator Ruston. It was much lower than inflation—1.2 per cent per annum is much lower than inflation. So there was inadequate indexation. There was a reluctance to fund community services properly. We are methodically working through all of those issues and addressing them at every budget, and we have been working in partnership with the community sector on that.