Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. Clearly, Labor has been treating—and will continue to treat—the defence community with a lack of concern that they do not deserve.

The member for Fadden and the shadow minister for Defence, Senator the Hon. David Johnstone, had a big win recently, forcing the government to abandon its shameful cuts to the Australian Defence Force personnel travel entitlements. This stunning backdown is recognition of the poor policy development on the part of this incompetent Labor government. The backflip will now mean that more than 22,000 ADF personnel over the age of 21—personnel who are prepared to put their lives on the line for our country—will now be able to travel home to see their families. The member for Fadden worked diligently with the defence community and people such as Paul Murray at 2UE to introduce a disallowance motion into the House on Monday, 25 June 2012 which would have blocked the travel entitlement cuts. The Gillard Labor government did not allow that disallowance to go to a vote. Instead, Minister Smith simply rolled over—and he has been very quiet about why it took so long to actually listen and do the right thing.

Many ADF members from Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera, in the Ryan electorate, and indeed from the wider defence community have communicated privately to me their displeasure and expressed their concerns about this Labor government and their now strained relationship with it, which commenced immediately with the former Prime Minister, the member for Griffith. Owing to the sensitive nature of their jobs and depending on their rank, it can be difficult for our troops to raise publicly many issues about which they are concerned.

The consequences of this Labor government's failure are clearly evident when you consider that Australia has had three defence ministers in five years, 15 reshuffles in the portfolio and four defence secretaries in four years. This week, Mr Duncan Lewis clearly had had enough and, after a strong and positive contribution to the ADF, resigned one year into a five-year term.

Unfortunately, it is not just those members on the opposite side of the House who have failed the ADF; it is also their partners in crime. The member for Lyne is very good at coming into the House and introducing motions about fair indexation for DFRB and DFRDB and feigning his support for the defence and veterans community. But, when it comes to an actual vote, the member for Lyne simply abstains from having to make what should not be a difficult decision. The member for Lyne showed his true colours again last week, as I understand that, regarding the cuts to ADF members' travel entitlements, the coalition had the support of the member for New England, the member for Denison and the member for Kennedy, and, yes, even the member for Melbourne and the Greens—but not the member for Lyne. He did not even support the veterans community when it came to the member for Fadden's amendments to the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment Bill. Nor did he support the coalition's ultimately successful move to reinstate travel funding for 22,000 of our troops.

The defence and veterans community expects the coalition to honour its commitments and promises should we win government, and I look forward to the opportunity to work with the defence and veterans community at Gallipoli Barracks, Enoggera and throughout Ryan and continuing to represent their concerns and wishes in parliament. Only the coalition is committed to properly resourcing defence. Only the coalition is committed to supporting our defence personnel. And only the coalition is committed to properly respecting the contribution of our veterans.

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