Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before addressing the bill at hand, allow me to express my deepest respect for the men and women of the defence forces of Australia, who are the pride of our nation and the envy of so many others. Their professionalism, their courage and their humility are constants. Regardless of political, economic and social change, our armed services stoically continue their work, risking all so that the rest of us can enjoy peace. I trust that the profligate spenders opposite, whose idea of victory appears to be setting record debt levels, will not get so carried away trying to buy favour with the public through their unstimulating stimulus packages that the larder is left bare for our Defence Force.

The first item in the Defence Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2008, the formal recognition of the red crystal symbol, in addition to the red cross and the red crescent, would appear long overdue. Given the religious connotations of the existing two symbols, it was inevitable that not all communities would be comfortable with embracing them. Many societies, Australia among them, have populations and consequently armed forces which are extremely diverse in cultural and ethnic terms. Although more than half the world’s people reportedly follow Christian or Islamic faiths, represented respectively by the symbols of the cross and the crescent, billions more do not, many of them tragically in regions currently suffering conflict. Perhaps the red crystal will one day become the dominant symbol for protection of people and property such as hospitals and vehicles, working in accordance with the Geneva conventions which set down rules governing the conduct of war. Regardless, the adoption of the red crystal in addition to the red cross and the red crescent is a positive move and one which would meet no opposition from any reasonable party.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the second item in this bill, relating to the provision of health care to families of Defence Force personnel. I have already indicated the great esteem in which I hold our service men and women, and I suspect the vast majority of Australians share my sentiment. However, we also feel enormous gratitude to the families of these personnel—families who make enormous sacrifices in supporting their military members in the execution of their duties.

The life of a military family can be exceedingly challenging. Stability is one of the first casualties, with frequent relocations as service personnel take up new postings, often in relatively remote and occasionally very unpleasant settings. Then there is the stress of separation when defence personnel are deployed overseas or even within Australia but away from their families for long periods of time. No-one should have any delusions about the purpose of our military or the risks inherent in any military career. But we must all recognise the impact on families who stay behind as personnel are sent into battle, as they have been and continue to be for the first time in such numbers in a generation. Such are the realities of military life. But spare a thought for those families and the stomach-churning anguish they experience as a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a son or a daughter stands against Australia’s enemies in distant lands and information on their whereabouts and welfare grows scarce. Every ring of the phone and every knock at the door must cause a chill in these homes as family members wonder if this is bad news from the front. Imagine their stress.

For the excellence of their skills and the way in which they exercise them—for that alone—military personnel deserve to know that their families are being taken care of by the nation they so faithfully serve. But when you consider the additional costs to the families themselves, then surely our debt and gratitude grows manyfold. I thought the government also understood this. But it seems that they were merely paying lip-service to the principles involved when they made an election promise to meet the medical and dental needs of our Australian Defence Force personnel’s families. I say ‘paying lip-service’ because, of course, on winning government, the members opposite failed to keep their promise, just as they have failed to keep so many others.

You have lied, and lied to the Australian public on this, and your credibility is shot. Here I will quote from Labor’s plan for defence, your election policy document, as it has been cited in reports. This is signed off on by the now Prime Minister and the now defence minister and the now veterans’ affairs minister. Under the title, ‘Free medical and dental care for ADF families’, you said:

ADF families can face significant difficulties obtaining access to general medical and dental care for dependants, especially in regional and remote localities.

Posting to a remote location can mean that ADF families struggle to access the sort of health care that Australians enjoy.

A Rudd Labor Government will progressively extend free health care currently provided to ADF personnel to ADF dependent spouses and children.

Labor will begin this with a $33.1 million investment starting at 12 Defence Family Health Care Clinics, with a focus on remote bases locations and major regional centres.

What a fantastic promise—brilliant! Families of those who lay their lives on the line for the sake of national security will be allowed to access the same healthcare services as the rest of us. If I did not know you were full of such empty promises, I might have been hoodwinked into voting for you myself.

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