Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This minister is guilty. This minister is guilty of gross incompetence. He is guilty of failing the most basic test of ministerial responsibility and accountability. He is guilty of failing to protect the wages and conditions of our soldiers, of failing to protect the welfare of the wives and the children of our serving soldiers, of undermining confidence in the leadership of the armed forces and of undermining the morale of SAS soldiers who are currently serving in Afghanistan.

We have heard some pathetic and lame excuses from the Minister for Defence as to why he has not been able to fix an appalling problem with the pay packets of a number of serving SAS soldiers. This has been going on since May 2008. No more of these excuses, Minister, as you walk out of the House. No more excuses about a computer glitch. No more blaming the computer. No more saying that no-one told you, that the Department of Defence is incompetent, that the dog ate your homework or that Senator Johnston has not told you. We heard the minister say today that he blames Senator Johnston for not bringing this matter to his attention earlier. It is now up to the opposition to tell the minister what is going on in his department! Is the minister telling the soldiers of Australia that, if they have got a problem in defence, they have to wait for the opposition to raise it in Senate estimates before the minister even understands what is going on in his own department? ‘Oh, Senator Johnston didn’t tell me!’ says the minister. That is a disgrace. The minister is guilty of the grossest incompetence in this regard.

Today, Minister, the buck stops here. Today the buck stops with the minister. This minister’s incompetence and inaction are causing enormous financial and emotional harm to our soldiers and their families. He has done nothing to fix the problem. Do you know when this came to the minister’s attention? At Senate estimates four months ago, and then last Monday, when it was on the front page of the Canberra Times. He had done nothing until it ran on the front page of the Canberra Times, and now we are told it will not be fixed until May 2009. That is 12 months from the time that these problems first arose.

The minister gave a guarantee last October to this House. He gave a guarantee—I assumed a solemn guarantee—to this House that he would fix the problem. He turned up in my electorate of Curtin at the Campbell Barracks just five days later and told the West Australian newspaper that the SAS were not concerned about this. He said:

Look I don’t think there’s any real sense of concern amongst members of the regiment.

These are people who are having their pay docked! He went on to say—and I’d listen to this—on 27 October:

The government addressed the recovery payments issue as soon as we learned of it.

Minister, you have not addressed this problem. You learned about it on 22 October, and today there are still soldiers who are receiving zero in their pay packets. The minister said—

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