Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for Defence to a question without notice I asked today relating to ADF pay cuts.

During question time today, I asked the Minister representing the Minister for Defence why he is giving our diggers a pay cut for Christmas. Why are the minister and the Chief of the Defence Force behaving like a grinch? As we heard in the last round of estimates, the Australian Defence Force, over the last two years, has lost nearly 8,000 members of our forces, and it's pretty clear to me and most veterans out there why this is happening. It's because of pay and conditions. In response to our ADF bleeding its members, the minister has given our soldiers, aviators and sailors a pay rise below the rate of inflation, which, of course, is a pay cut. Add to this the fact that this government has given new recruits a cash bonus to stay for longer while there is no bonus offered for serving members to encourage them to stay. And now they will have to swallow a pay cut.

In May 2022, the now Prime Minister said 'a Labor government would ensure Defence has the resources it needs'. I'm assuming he wasn't talking about the billion-dollar submarines we won't get for 20 years—and that'll be on a good day—not to mention the fact that Defence is still refusing to release documents to the veterans royal commission. Seriously, who would want to go and work for an employer like that? On 25 October, a press release from the Minister for Defence's office said that the Albanese government was delivering on its promise to keep Australians safe. But I reckon they're stuffing it up, and today I was joined in this belief by retired army chief General Peter Leahy.

Leahy told the ABC today that the government's decisions 'are ripping the heart out of defence'. He went on to say:

Australia's military is now less capable and ready for potential threats than when Labor first came to office.

How about that? We've got problems with national security. There is no time to fix this. The Chief of Defence Force can give our diggers the pay rise they deserve, and if he doesn't then he should resign along with your Minister for Defence because I can tell you he is going down. They are calling him the worst minister they have seen in a very, very long time representing them in defence, and you know who he is. Get rid of both of them!

Question agreed to.