Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

What an absolute act of fabricated political foolery. What a joke. Let us be very clear about this: the opposition have no interest in bipartisan support for Australian Defence Force personnel, men or women. Let us be very clear: they are trying to make cheap political points out of an issue which is extremely important to SAS soldiers and their families—an issue which is being addressed by this government. Let us assume just for a moment that you were serious about supporting Australian Defence Force personnel and their families—I suspect that you may actually not be quite accurate in that determination. I have a very strong recollection of the use and abuse of the Australian Defence Force by the opposition when they were in government. I well recall ‘children overboard’. I well recall a Senate estimates committee with Admiral Barrie giving evidence about the way in which the Defence Force were being used politically by the now opposition when they were in government.

Now we see this shameful piece of political theatre this afternoon. Why is this a shameful piece of political theatre? Let us be very clear about this. The minister has taken decisive action. In October the Minister for Defence, on learning of this issue, instructed that debt recovery action should cease. The Chief of Army then directed that all debt recovery action would cease from 13 November. Since that time, the Army has been conducting a thorough audit to find out how many people have been affected. There are a couple of important things to note here. Not only did the minister take that action but also, when this was raised in Senate estimates, we took the opposition seriously. In fact on 23 October Senator Johnston, the shadow minister for defence, wrote to me in relation to this issue.

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