The following letter is reproduced with the kind permission of Mr Peter Thornton, Independent Researcher and Commentator. However, while this permission is given, it in no way constitutes an endorsement of RestoreAustralia’s aims. Peter remains staunchly apolitical.

The letter is the latest in an exchange of correspondence with the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, Hon. Warren Snowdon MP, Shadow Minister Ronaldson, and Peter who is trying to get answers to the continuing refusal by the government to bring veteran’s pensions into line with civilian pensions, which are pegged to the cost of living index. It seems that the government can find millions of dollars to send to Indonesia to finance building mosques and schools for a religion that is dedicated to killing our Diggers, but when it comes to looking after the survivors of the wars the politicians have sent us to fight there is “no money available in the budget”.

We want answers, and we want them now!

This is the relevant part of the correspondence between Peter and the Ministers that preceded the following letter:

…..the issue of pension parity should be a matter of principled policy stemming from the 2007 agreement with Veterans and not one of cost! As such, I hope both the Government and the Opposition will reconsider their policy positions on this matter as a priority and I would in turn ask the Minister and Shadow Minister to provide a considered response to the matters raised here, not only myself, but to all those copied and to the broader Veteran community at large.

The Issue of “Cost” to reinstate DVA Pension Parity

 

Dear Minster Snowdon and Shadow Minister Ronaldson,

Minister Snowden

Unfortunately, apart from one or two keep alive emails from Senator Ronaldson shortly after the dispatched of my abridged email below, the silence has been deafening in response to my research paper regarding the issue of Pension Parity for DVA Disability Pensioners.

As a consequence, and as previously requested below, I write once again to request a detailed and considered response to my research paper (an abridged version was attached to the original letters) and to now ask what your respective party policies will be to ameliorate this specific issue in the lead up to the next election.

Shadow Minister Ronaldson

As my research clearly demonstrates, the expected decline in DVA recipient numbers will substantially, if not completely offset within current budgetary allocations, any reasonable cost to fix the pension parity issue … a very critical issue for disability pensions that are inclusive of an income compensation component (i.e. Intermediate and TPI / Special Rate pensions).