Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—Yesterday I was asked in question time by the shadow minister for foreign affairs:

Is the minister aware that, as recently as four weeks ago, due to debt recovery action by the government, a serving SAS soldier received zero dollars in his pay packet and has been unable to make his home loan payments?

To that question I responded:

I am not aware of the particular case, although I have noticed that Senator Johnston has been bandying around a piece of paper—unwilling, by the way, to share it with me. So I invite the member to table it, so that I can ...

Of course, the opposition decided not to share that information. Immediately after question time yesterday I asked the Department of Defence to try and identify more details about the pay slip that Senator Johnston was bandying around in Senate estimates yesterday—which, I believe, the shadow minister for foreign affairs was also bandying around.

At 10 am today I was provided with a copy of a pay slip that Defence, I am advised, believes is a copy of this pay slip. We believe that this is a copy of the same pay slip of the husband of a woman who emailed our office two weeks ago raising concerns about debt recovery issues. Of course, this would have been much easier to deal with if the opposition had not sought to score a cheap political point at the expense of this family. This is also despite Senator Johnston, the shadow minister for defence, saying at Senate estimates in October:

I am very much obliged to the efforts you—

that is, the Chief of Army—

have taken. I thank you for that. I will write to you if there are any further issues so that we might resolve them privately from here on in. Thank you very much.

I also said yesterday in parliament that:

My office advises that we did have one woman ring my office complaining about an overpayment. Unfortunately, she was unprepared—and I think that is understandable given the political nature of this issue now—to give us her name, number or situation. She just wanted my office to know that there was a problem. I appreciate her having done that because it reinforced in my mind that we still have problems.

That phone call was made to my office on 10 February 2009. I have been advised overnight that another person called my office on 12 February to follow up on an email she had sent to my office the day before—that is, 11 February. That person emailed me overnight to point out that she too had made contact with my office. She was not very happy, I have to say. I absolutely understand her not being happy that I did not mention her yesterday, so I thank her for bringing this to my attention. Hers is a case in which her husband, who is an SAS soldier, had money deducted from his pay. Importantly, I am advised that, like other members affected, any recovery action relating to the March 2008 Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal determination against her partner ceased at my direction last year.

For completeness, I wish to advise that during the past four months the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel and I have received a number of emails and phone calls from members of the Defence Force and the public expressing concern about this matter. All phone calls were taken, all emails were responded to promptly, and any specific concerns that were raised with my office have been immediately referred to the Australian Defence Force for both investigation and action. I thank the House.