David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Defence, Senator Faulkner. I refer to the fact that on 26 February this year the Minister for Defence waved around in the parliament the salary variation advice of an SAS soldier who had been financially disadvantaged by the government’s bungling of the SAS pay issue. I refer the minister to the fact that, when the Minister for Defence was asked by the partner of the SAS soldier concerned for details of the salary variation debt advice, the minister refused to provide it to her on grounds that ‘the release of information is constrained by the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988’. Minister, why was it okay for the Minister for Defence to have access to the soldier’s salary variation advice and wave it around for all to see but it was not okay for the soldier’s partner to be provided with details as to what debt recovery had been undertaken whilst he was away on deployment?