Mr BURKE (Watson—Manager of Opposition Business) (15:18): Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is important that we suspend standing orders on this issue, because it is important that every member opposite is forced to vote personally on whether or not they want orphans of veterans to be able to receive this payment. We have heard time and again that somehow this was an election commitment but not one of them has been able to produce the brochure they provided to their electorate telling people that this is what they had in store for the orphans of veterans. It is important that we set aside the time in the parliament to force people into the parliament who have walked out. The Prime Minister is so proud of his policy on this that he left the chamber the moment the debate commenced. Almost all of the front bench made sure that they cleared out the moment this debate started to take place. By suspending standing orders and by making sure that this comes to a vote, we will make sure that they come back into this chamber in a way that will stand on their record forever, in a way that their electorate will know about and in a way that they will not be able to hide from the veterans communities in each of the electorates that are represented on the other side of this chamber. The priorities here are breathtaking, and it is important that we set aside the business of the House to bring this issue to a head. Never once during the election campaign did any of those members opposite say—there is not a quote that anyone has been able to refer to—that they were going to cut the entitlements for orphans of veterans. We are talking about people whose parents have died defending this nation and they are going to have their benefits cut—for an amount of money that equals four highly-paid women receiving paid parental leave under the Prime Minister's gold-plated scheme. You will not find a more breathtaking error in priorities than what the government is doing here. Those opposite must not be allowed to avoid the situation where their name has this issue attached to it on the record of this parliament. Hansard records everybody who votes each way and it is recorded forever. Those opposite will never again, after today, be able to claim that somehow they are friends of veterans. Mr Robert: And you can talk! You are a disgrace! Mr BURKE: 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.