Thank you, Chair.
I'm going to come back to the marriage after 60 clause. I think we all know that it was put into law in 1901. It was nicknamed the “gold-digger clause” because the idea at the time, of course, was that young women were marrying men when they were older and getting their pensions. I'm very frustrated that the sexism in place in those days—and hopefully we think we are doing a bit better now—certainly continues today.
The minister has said that research is happening to help identify these spouses. I want to be really clear that a lot of these spouses have reached out to our office and asked about this, especially once they heard about the 2019 budget announcement. They wanted to sign up. Now it is over two years later and the study is just starting. My office has been asking again and again for information and really has nothing to tell people.
Could there be a process that people could apply to? I'm sure that many of these people, largely women, can self-identify quite clearly. This is something that, in my opinion, they desperately need and deserve. That's one question. How is this process going to unfold? How are people going to be able to access the supports that they desperately need?
As for the second question, when is this clause going to be removed? This is an old clause that has nothing to do with what's happening today. It's been over 100 years. It needs to be gone. I'm wondering when it will actually be removed. When will we start treating people who marry our military veterans respectfully? These people are loving them. This is a beautiful thing, and we should not be punishing people for falling in love at 60.