HOW wonderful it is that Australia has such a caring Prime Minister who values so many people so much.
There’s an extra $1 billion for Indonesia, another $1 billion for Afghanistan, and another $1 billion to add to the $2 billion already promised to community services workers for pay rises of between 23 per cent and 45 per cent over eight years.
That is not an insignificant pay rise, although nothing compared to the $40,000 a year given to politicians just a few months ago, not to mention the additional 3.5 per cent they were also given a week ago.
Yet this same PM can’t find a paltry (in the scheme of things) $20 million to bring veterans’ pensions into line with the formula used to fund her own pension increases, as well as all other Commonwealth pensions, except veterans.
So I can only wonder why Ms Gillard can see no wrong in the indexation formula that Australia’s veterans pensions are paid on, with a massive 0.1 per cent increase a week or so ago, equating to 35 cents per week, while at the same time she has no difficulty finding the money for the above examples, among many others.
And let’s not even think how much the illegal immigrant industry is costing.