Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I speak in favour of the Australian Defence Force Superannuation Bill 2015 and related bills. The people of Lindsay have long had a firm relationship with our defence forces. To this day, the Lindsay electorate includes and is surrounded by many defence bases. To our north is Richmond RAAF Base and to our west is RAAF Base Glenbrook. Inside the electorate we have the Orchard Hills Defence establishment, and of course the Penrith engineers still call the region home. It is the Defence history and the Defence personnel that brought my mother's family to the Penrith region, when my grandfather worked in the munitions site on the north side of Penrith, now called Thornton.

Lindsay is very proud of our key military history. In fact, Lindsay is named after Norman Lindsay, a lot of whose work, in cartoons and caricatures, was about the recruitment of young people into the Army. We deeply respect our defence forces and we honour and respect what they have done in keeping our country strong, free and safe. Whether it be the efforts in the Middle East involving peacekeeping missions, or national security or analysing intelligence, the men and women who are part of our forces are the backbone of the way of life we often take for granted and the peace in which we live.

We are reminded that yesterday was Vietnam Veterans Day, when we commemorate not only the 1966 Battle of Long Tan but the whole war, where much of the fighting took place with small enemy groups who used the dense forests and tunnelling systems to ambush Allied troops. At the Battle of Long Tan 18 Australians were killed, while estimates place enemy deaths at well over 1000. That battle is considered the first major conflict of that war in which Australians were engaged. They were outnumbered, but they held our ground. Yesterday was a reminder of the heroics and the sacrifices our troops are prepared to make to defend the values that we hold so dear.

We were also reminded last weekend of the 70th anniversary of the VJ Day or VP Day, which marked the end of World War II. After six long years of fear and sacrifice, our nation finally tasted freedom. We get a glimpse of that moment through those indelible images of people dancing in the streets and throwing masses of tick-a-tape across the footpaths of our towns and cities. They finally got to share in the joy of peace, but not before facing the reality of some terrible costs—not just numbers of those killed and wounded, but the stories of unimaginable horrors. I was honoured last week to have heard the story of the journey of the father of Tanya Davies, the member for Mulgoa in the New South Wales parliament, who endured many of these horrors and wounds. People still get shivers up their spines from the mere mention of places like Sandakan and Bataan, where people were sent on death marches; or places like Borneo or Kokoda, where people were cannibalised. In a little over a month's time, I will be joining the Panthers on the Prowl—11 wonderful young women from my community—to trek Kokoda. Then there was the infamous Burma Railway, where people were so starved their bones protruded through their skin and many died. There was the horror of the Australian ship, the Centaura well-marked hospital ship that was mercilessly torpedoed just off the coast of Brisbane, drowning 268 nurses and medics. We still do not know exactly how many people died in the air raids on Darwin or in the other raids on Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales—when midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour.

The war brought so many horrors to the world and to our country. My grandfather, a young man from Stanthorpe, was sent to the clean-up of Nagasaki only weeks after the bomb had been detonated. He saw the extreme suffering of many Japanese people. Peace in the Pacific, and peace to the world, should be celebrated by the whole world. Earlier this year my electorate paid tribute to all those Australians killed in every theatre of war since the Sudan Conflict in 1885. They placed 102,807 poppies—that is equivalent to more than twice the capacity of the SCG and represents more than half those killed on the battlefields of France and Belgium during World War I.

Today it is important that we look at the sacrifices the Australian Defence Forces have made so that we can live freely. It is important that we provide the right superannuation for Defence personnel. They are the real heroes of Australia—those men and women who tirelessly serving in our Defence Forces. I support this bill, as it recognises the need for a superannuation fund that is better tailored to the needs of defence force personnel. Previously there was the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme, the DFRDB, which closed in 2001, and the current Military Super Scheme, which currently has around 56,500 contributing members and 96,000 former members, who no longer contribute because they have left the forces, and 11,000 pensioners. This old Military Super scheme offers our Defence personnel good benefits, but it does not give them flexibility.

Changing to a new system will open Defence personnel to a range of new access options to their pensions, especially for those who are over 55, and more flexibility over their contributions and investment options. The current scheme has no portability arrangements for those who leave the forces, and access to the contributions is not available until preservation age. Perhaps the most significant change is the separation of the superannuation scheme from statutory death and invalid cover. This not only gives personnel more choice, but also offers those who have other superannuation arrangements access to death and invalid cover. These changes have the broad support of the Defence Welfare Association and the RSL, because it offers a modern superannuation scheme. As the new ADF Superannuation scheme will offer fully portable benefits, personnel can choose any complying fund. They will not be forced to contribute five per cent, as they currently do. This new fund will be fully funded and invested and available to members in a lump sum from the age of 55.

The new arrangements are also generous. The employer contribution rate for the Australian Defence Force Superannuation scheme is 16.4 per cent. Of the schemes currently available, only judges have a better pension arrangement. The Parliamentary Superannuation Accumulation scheme, which has been in place for almost 11 years now and which replaced an older and more generous scheme, is one percentage point lower than the contributions than the new ADF scheme. This additional contribution recognises the special place that Australian Defence Force personnel have in our society and is small thanks for their commitment and service.

It is 70 years since the end of World War II, 100 years since we landed on those fatal shores on Gallipoli, 130 years since the Sudan conflict, 40 years since the end of Vietnam and 60 years since the outbreak of hostilities in Korea. We owe it to the men and women in our military to give back just a little when they have risked so much for us.

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