Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to the Defence Force Retirement Benefits Legislation Amendment (Fair Indexation) bill 2014. This is about doing the right thing, the fair thing, for those who served our nation in a very unique way.

I apologise to the veterans in my community and, indeed, across Australia for the delays in implementing this policy. I know this policy well. It had its beginnings with the Podger review. The Podger review, the review into military superannuation arrangements, was commissioned by the Howard government but unfortunately we had to go to an election and did not have the opportunity to adequately implement the measures.

I remember the first shadow minister for veterans' affairs, Bronwyn Bishop, taking the Podger review and looking at what could be done. My colleague the member for Macquarie, Louise Markus, who is in the House now, was the subsequent shadow minister for veterans' affairs and I filled the role as the shadow minister for defence personnel. We worked on this policy. We built up a business case and we took it to the then Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott. It took a lot of convincing to get this through the ERC but Tony Abbott knew this was the right thing to do. We took this policy to the 2010 election. Nothing made me happier than that after 2010 the very first policy that the coalition recommitted to was the DFRDB policy, because it was about doing the right thing by those who had given so much to our nation.

By contrast, look at the Labor Party. In opposition with the Podger review they put out a commitment, and that commitment was in 2007 to prevent further erosion of veterans' pensions due to unfair indexation. But given each and every chance when in government to do something, whether it was coalition members, whether it was notices of motion, each and every time they walked away with feeble excuses: it was not affordable. If it was affordable to do pink batts, if it was affordable to spend excess money on BER programs, if it was affordable to blow budgets, then why couldn't they do it for our veterans? That is the biggest question. That is one of the reasons why I feel I need to apologise to the veterans in our community.

I think that Stewie Roberts and Michael Ronaldson in their ministerial roles have done a tremendous job in advocating this policy through to the last election and I congratulate them on their great efforts, particularly Michael Ronaldson with the pledges. When I was asked did I want to sign a pledge at my RSL club in front of hundreds of people, I jumped at the opportunity, because I, like other members of the coalition, was committed to this policy.

Through the process of time and development of this policy we worked very hard with people such as the Defence Force Welfare Association, the DFWA; the RSL; the Naval Association of Australia; the Royal Australian Air Force Association; the Royal Australian Regiment Association; the Australian Special Air Service Association; plus countless thousands of individuals who sent representations that had to be replied to, just questioning one thing: why is it that we as politicians sat here with the increases we had in our pensions when the greatest danger we had was falling off the chair at our desk when those who put their lives on the line were being treated this way? Quite frankly, I was embarrassed. So today with honour I put my pledge of support to this legislation, this legislation long overdue.

If members opposite had one ounce of moral fibre in their body, there would be no hesitation in supporting this policy, this legislation. At the end of the day it is about doing the right thing by your mates, and our soldiers, our sailors and our airmen are our mates who stood to defend our freedoms and democracy, to keep us out of harm's way. I think it has been a shambles the way they have been treated, particularly with broken promises. If we think the broken promise on the carbon tax was bad enough, can I tell you that the broken promise to them in not delivering on their DFRB increases cut an even harder rapier through their chest. It is with some pride and relief that I commend this bill to the House.

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