DEBUS HAILS VICTORY FOR DISABLED WAR VETERANS
September 12, 2007

The Labor Candidate for Macquarie, Bob Debus, says the Howard Government’s decision to follow Labor’s policy on indexing disabled veterans’ payments is a victory for Lithgow veterans.

“The Howard Government has finally acted in the best interests of disabled war veterans,” said Mr Debus.

“It might be ten minutes to midnight before an election but it’s a great result for Lithgow veterans who are struggling with cost of living increases such as rents, petrol and grocery costs.”

Mr Howard’s announcement follows Labor’s commitment to index pensions for disabled war veterans and provides catch-up payments to deal with some of the erosion of the value of payments that has occurred under the Howard Government.

Mr Debus said he was pleased that Labor Leader Kevin Rudd had immediately endorsed the Government’s plan for catch-up payments.

“There is no doubt that Mr Howard was forced to over-ride his Minister for Veterans Affairs when he adopted Labor’s policy on indexing disability pensions,” said Mr Debus.

“Minister Billson has been highly critical of Labor’s policy to address this problem, so Labor will be seeking reassurances that Mr Howard will actually keep the promise to offer fairer indexation.

“Will this be one of the Government’s core or ‘non-core’ promises?”
Mr Debus said the erosion in the value of payments caused by the Government’s failure to index payments would still leave a gap of $20 a
fortnight for special rate pensioners.

“Veterans will still be worse off now than they would have been if the Government had properly indexed payments in 1997 when they indexed other Government pensions,” said Mr Debus.

“This Government’s failure to ensure that payments keep pace with the rising cost of living has been a financial burden for veterans.

“This has been a long struggle for fairness and the Government, after ten long years, has finally responded."

Bob Debus will host a visit to Bathurst by Labor’s Shadow Minister for Veterans Affairs, Alan Griffin, tomorrow night (Thursday September 13) to meet with veterans at the Bathurst RSL Club.