Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

And to hear that minister opposite laughing! I will tell you: there is not one orphan receiving this payment who is laughing. There is not one member of the veterans community who is laughing about this issue. Not one person who is actually hurt by this issue would see the humour that the minister opposite sees in this issue. I cannot think of an issue of priorities more outrageous than this. In the scheme of the total budget we are talking about a payment of around a couple of hundred dollars for each person affected. We are talking about a total of 1,200 Australians who are impacted on by this. Of the decisions that are made by the Expenditure Review Committee this is not one that is going to make a significant difference to the bottom line. But if it were to make a significant difference then the Paid Parental Leave scheme, the gold-plated Paid Parental Leave scheme of the Prime Minister, is there waiting to provide the savings measure. Only four people affected would provide the savings which would allow this measure to continue.

We see those opposite try to wrap themselves in the flag and claim that they are the patriots of this parliament. Those opposite should be willing to publicise what they are doing on this issue, and no-one should pretend that this is somehow wrapped up in the same decision as the mining tax. The fact that there is the disallowance motion on the Notice Paper right now means that this issue can be dealt with in isolation and those opposite when they vote will have the opportunity to deal with this issue and this issue alone. If they still want to pursue what they want on the mining tax, this debate will not make a difference to that. But it will make an extraordinary difference in the message that this parliament sends to the veterans community of Australia and will make a very significant difference to the record that hangs around the heads of those opposite for the rest of their parliamentary careers.

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