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

Once again, I directed that recovery action be stopped. The Chief of Army directive of 18 February effectively extinguished all debts. I always acknowledged that there was a chance that discrepancies would still appear in the very complex and large payroll system. That is why I have engaged an independent auditor to get to the bottom of this and to identify whether or not the directives were properly followed through and whether any such discrepancies still exist. Why have I done that? So we know what we are dealing with and we can deal with all the problems.

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