Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Defence. I refer to the minister’s statement to this House on 25 February:

No special forces soldier in this country has a debt against his name because of the way in which Defence has implemented the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal’s decision—end of story.

I ask the minister: is it a fact that on 5 March, eight days after he made that statement to parliament, the defence department deposited a five-figure sum into the bank account of an SAS soldier for wrongfully deducting pay and forcing debt repayments on him? Isn’t it the plain fact that the minister has come into this parliament both yesterday and today refusing to stand by that statement of 25 February because what he told the House on that day was not true?

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to 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.