House debates

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Bills

Defence Legislation Amendment Bill 2018; Second Reading

12:23 pm

Photo of Cathy O'TooleCathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have made it known in this place many times that I am proud and honoured to represent the largest garrison city in Australia. But the recent extreme weather event in Townsville has demonstrated to me just how amazing and committed our community of ADF are to the people of Townsville, and that is just another reason why I am honoured to represent the ADF constituents in Herbert.

Townsville has experienced our worst flood event in history. It's being called a one-in-1,000-years event. In fewer than nine days Townsville received more than a year's worth of rain. More than 22,000 homes were affected, and 110 roads were also affected. The ADF played a major role in ensuring that lives were not lost in this catastrophic weather event. The men and women of the ADF doorknocked thousands of homes, advising residents that they were in a flood zone and would need to evacuate their homes. They spent evenings rescuing residents from the sudden wall of water that would flow from the dam and also the rain that was falling. Our dam had reached a capacity of 244 per cent. Our ADF personnel put their own lives at risk to rescue Townsville residents, and they did so when many of them were not able to even protect their own homes. An estimated 100 Defence personnel were affected by the floods. A newspaper article said:

LANCE Corporal Daniel Hyman of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment is one of the many Townsville based personnel who helped residents evacuate as their own homes were inundated.

Displaced Defence families were being housed in evacuation centres as their loved ones worked—

to save and help other residents. The article continued:

LCpl Hyman said the ordeal has been physically and mentally taxing but was proud of the Army's efforts.

"I put it to the back of my mind and tried not to think about what was happening … there were people who needed our assistance more, so we had to put our stuff aside so we could help the community," he said

"I was very happy that we were out there to help our community, we put the community first."

However, the ADF's amazing efforts have not stopped there. Since the devastating flood, ADF personnel have spent every single day assisting in the clean-up, making their way through mountains of smelly mud, walking through sewage, removing the mountains of damaged furniture from people's homes and assisting with the disposal. Their efforts have helped Townsville residents and have been vital in helping Townsville get back on our feet. In this place, it's important that we acknowledge their amazing work. I want to sincerely thank all of our current serving Defence personnel and their families. You looked after Townsville, and I will work hard to ensure that you and your families are looked after also and to assist you to get back on your feet.

I am proud to support the Defence Legislation Amendment Bill 2018 in the House today. This bill amends the Defence Reserve Service (Protection) Act 2001 and the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 to help improve transparency, ensure protections for reservists and clean up some redundant provisions.

Schedule 1 will enhance the independence of judge advocates and provide greater transparency in the selection of judge advocates. Judge advocates are senior military legal officers appointed by the Chief of the Defence Force or a service chief following nomination by the Judge Advocate General. They may be appointed as the judge advocate of a court martial, assisting court martial members with the application of military law. Alternatively, they may be appointed as a Defence Force magistrate to try charges referred to them by the Registrar of Military Justice. Members of the judge advocates panel are central to the proper operation of the superior service tribunals in the military justice system. The amendments made in this section will ensure transparency in the selection of judge advocates and greater independence when it comes to their remuneration. Under these changes, members of the judge advocates panel will have their remuneration determined by the Remuneration Tribunal, establishing an independent process to determine their pay. In addition, the selection criteria will be established by a notifiable instrument, providing greater transparency in the selection and termination of their appointments.

Schedule 2 moves existing complaint mechanisms, investigations and mediation schemes for Defence reservists from the regulations into the principal act. Defence reservists are afforded a number of protections in their civilian employment and education, mitigating some of the employment and financial disadvantages that reserve members may face when rendering Defence service. Reservists are fundamental to our capability, and we should be doing all we can to ensure that there are no barriers to their participation in the ADF. The amendment will insert new divisions into the act based on the complaint and mediation scheme currently in the regulations. The scheme will be simplified and improved by these changes.

The final schedule makes a number of minor technical amendments, most of which relate to redundant and repealed provisions. For example, the amendments will update the definition of 'prohibited drug' to reflect other legislation and provide for court martial records to be disclosed by the Registrar of Military Justice rather than the Attorney-General. Given the technical nature of these changes, I offer my support to this schedule.

I have spoken in this place on every single Defence or veteran bill because our current serving and ex-serving veterans and their families deserve the strongest representation and assurance that they have a member who stands up for them in this place. I stand here again today, as I have done many times before, to support a bill that supports our Defence personnel. Once again, I thank the men and women of the ADF for the outstanding contribution they have made in Townsville in recent events.

Comments

No comments