STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (13:53): Across the world today we celebrate democracy. We mark the International Day of Democracy. Yesterday, in this place, we trashed democracy.

When the amendment came back from the Senate in relation to scrapping the cap, 86 to 46 was the vote. Over in the upper house it was 35 to 20 last Thursday to scrap the insidious, unfair, unjust and un-Australian cap on our veterans—a $5,000 figure placed on their allied health, on their physical health and on their mental health. This is simply not good enough.

Yet, when the vote came into the House of Representatives, there was a 40-vote difference. You know what? Veterans across Australia will have a look at who voted to not scrap the cap and they'll remember.

They'll remember it on 11 November. They'll remember it on 25 April. But you know what?

They'll remember it next election day; they will remember. When we say the words, 'Lest we forget', we should not just have those words as a throwaway line; they should actually mean something. Labor had another chance today.

It's time to scrap the cap. It's time to respect veterans' noble and courageous duty.