Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Defence. Minister, earlier today in Senate estimates hearings on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, documents were tabled detailing your government’s cuts in pays and allowances to ADF members engaged in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Because the government did not think these changes through properly and, instead, backdated them to August 2007, the documents tabled today revealed that a significant number of our SAS members have now incurred debts of up to $30,000 and, due to debt recovery, these elite men and women have been left with a take-home pay of only $250 per fortnight and interest on their debts at 7.2 per cent. Minister, will you immediately intervene to overturn this abhorrent cut to the pay and allowances of our fighting men and women and, importantly, step in without delay to protect the estates of the five brave men who made the supreme sacrifice in active service in Afghanistan—namely, Trooper David Pearce, Sergeant Matthew Locke, Private Luke Worsley, Lance Corporal Jason Marks and SAS Signaller Sean McCarthy?

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