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

Let us go back to what took place here. Senator Johnston went into Senate estimates and, for the first time, the Chief of Army, the Chief of the Defence Force and I—all distressed—learned for the first time that the payroll system was deducting from the pay of special forces soldiers large amounts of money, in some cases money they rightfully believed they deserved. So what did I do? That day I called the Chief of the Defence Force or the Chief of Army—to be honest, I am not sure which now—and said, ‘We must stop this recovery action now and you guys must do whatever it takes to immediately fix this thing.’ The stop on the recovery action is still in place to this day, although it is not absolutely necessary because from 18 February the Chief of Army’s directive has completely waived or extinguished those debts.

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