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

During question time just a few weeks ago, I asked the Minister representing the Minister for Defence why the defence minister was giving our diggers a pay cut for Christmas. I asked him why the minister and the Chief of the Defence Force were behaving like the Grinch. The minister's response to the fact that our ADF is bleeding members has been to give our soldiers, aviators and sailors a pay rise below the rate of inflation—which, of course, is a pay cut.

As we heard in the last round of estimates, the Australian Defence Force over the last two years has lost nearly 8,000 members. It's pretty clear to me and most veterans out there why this is happening. It's because of pay and conditions. What comes to mind with those two words? It's unions. But diggers and veterans don't have a union, you see. They rely on the Chief of the Defence Force and the minister to stand up for them, to stand beside them and to fight for them all the way. The Australian Public Service, on the other hand, has the CPSU, who have been lobbying hard for their members. Three days ago, they announced that the government has offered an additional payment to employees that is the equivalent of 0.92 per cent of an employee's salary. CPSU workers will get this payment as a lump sum, and they don't have to wait for the Fair Work Commission to tick off on it. How about that!

In May 2022, the now Prime Minister said a Labor government would ensure Defence 'has the resources it needs'. He does realise that people are resources, right? Does the government realise that our sailors, soldiers and airmen are actually resources? It is time to fix this. If you want to keep people in our military, I suggest you start standing up for them. The Minister for Defence should direct the Chief of the Defence Force to give our diggers a proper pay rise, and, while he's at it, he should ask the CDF to resign. Then the minister should go shopping for a new portfolio, I can assure you, because that's a Christmas present that all the diggers will be able to get behind.