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Contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence writes that the loyalty and service of veterans has been “…rewarded with a comparative humiliating pittance of a pension and an inadequate superannuation scheme and death benefit that leaves many of them and their widows living and dying under the breadline and under the radar of the general public.”
by contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence
From somewhere in another sepia time zone bleeding into this 97th Anzac Day, a lone magpie warbles in the dark, nature’s own melancholic bugler of the Last Post, calling out to the huddled throng gathering to form a human wreath around Daylesford’s Cenotaph.
A reluctant dawn has yet to awaken the weary battalions of ghosts of wars past and present, whose spirits we invoke to salve our conscience and decorate our history.
A chiffon veil of misty rain, like the gentle tears of angels, anoints us. And we are of all ages and disposition; some even direct descendants of the names etched onto the monument and cut deep into the hearts that surround it.
In some homes, lights are on. The sick, elderly and frail will stay home and murmur their own prayers or curses. There will be older Diggers among them. Some unable to march. Some who refuse to march. There will be neglected widows cast onto the pyres of bureaucratic indifference along with the orphans of war.
Candles will already have been lit and faded photographs of young men frozen in time by the camera lens before they were frozen in death by a bullet, will ritually be brought down from the mantelpiece in Nan’s lounge room and dead lips lovingly fingered and kissed.
All around Australia, in regional villages not dissimilar to Daylesford, millions of us emerge to remember and mourn our dead, forming human Avenues of Honour at dawn services and parades.
But some of us also came to mourn the living, our 57,000 Veterans or so, who for decades, have shamefully been left for dead by the Gillard and previous Australian governments.
We weep for the dead. But the dead would surely weep for their brothers and sisters in arms, who survived these wars only to be treated as third class citizens in their own country and trashed, discarded and demeaned.
Some are in the seventh age of man. They have been subjected to systematic elder abuse by this nation. Not only have they been robbed of their youth, but they have been robbed of comfort and peace of mind in their middle-age and dotage. This is not right. This is not Justice. They have earned a fair go.
Their loyalty and service was rewarded with a comparative humiliating pittance of a pension and an inadequate superannuation scheme and death benefit that leaves many of them and their widows living and dying under the breadline and under the radar of the general public.
But hey, it’s Anzac Day, the day when our Government props up a myth of how we really treat our Diggers. It seems we honour the dead and despise the living. Forget about the ungrateful dead. And forget about the ungrateful living. It’s enough to have the honour of wearing the uniform, right?
Embedded in the hypocrisy, political expediency and Government manipulation of this sacred day is the foul stench of treachery of the very people we purport to celebrate on This One Day of the Year.
In Julia Gillard’s speech at Gallipoli. No mention was made of the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam, Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan et al. Best not to bring it up. Too embarrassing; couldn’t let the descendants of Colonel Mustafa Ataturk, who clearly thought better of our Diggers than Gillard does, know how wretchedly Australia treats our Veterans and indeed, our current serving personnel. Not a good look.
Our politicians can afford to mouth empty words and disgorge empty platitudes upon our dead, in this country and on foreign shores.
After all, the dead do not vote.
Prime Minister Gillard and our other fat-walleted politicians can afford to deify the dead with impunity.
They stand erect and proud alongside battlegrounds, graves and coffins draped with the Australian flag and publicly exhort heroic deeds and the payment of the ‘ultimate’ sacrifice, whilst basking in the going down of the sun, like the political vultures they are — feeding off the well-picked carcass of our military history.
They shamelessly dress the corpses of those killed in action in Afghanistan in hypocrisy and hyperbole, anointing them with the perfumes of patriotism and assuring family members and the Australian public, that loved ones did not die in vain in this vanity war. More lies.
It is cruel to say they died in vain and crueller still to say they died through the political and military expediency of our collective political leaders.
Our Prime Minister and politicians have the audacity to treat these funeral services as little more than a poll bolstering photo opportunity, labouring under the delusion that some of the grandeur and solemn pathos of the moment might rub off on them.
They are not fit to even walk in the shadows of the dead or the walking wounded who return from our squalid wars.
Many of our Veterans are tired of such grotesque political exhibitionism and their hostility is palpable.
They have grown older as we who are left grow older. It is up to those of us who can to fight on their behalf — with them and for them.
In the ghostly light, Daylesford students deliver an incisive homage to our war dead that far eclipses the contrived earnest spin of politicians. Schoolgirls sing Advance Australia Fair and the lone magpie would not fault their sweet voices warming the cold air, nor wish to.
Later in the service, they return to sing ‘God Save the Queen’, which is described as a ‘hymn’.
Just as well few dare sing other verses of this imperialist battle cry, since it puts the boot into the Scots, the French, the Presbyterians and of course, those Catholics; the British Throne’s disdain for the latter even enshrined in its Constitution’s holy conjugal, marital and progeny orders.
But none of the above precluded our Prime Ministers from despatching Australians to war, or Catholic Diggers from dying for the British Monarch: nor any of the other millions of loyal subjects in the Commonwealth diaspora from laying down their lives or sustaining wounds.
It is outrageous colonial and political servility that, even today, Australian Defence Forces swear an oath to The Queen, and to her heirs and descendants — and not to Australia and its people.
Australia doesn’t even get a mention — apart from the swearer identifying if he/she is from the Australian Navy, Army, or Air Force.
One can’t but help contemplate this whilst listening to the speeches and staring at the various theatres of war on foreign shores documented on the Cenotaph.
Former Headmaster, Mayor and now President of the Dayleford RSL, Keith Pyers speaks to us with the ease of a brotherly neighbour. The rain has blotted his notes, but not his heart. The PA system, too, is on the blink, but Keith is not fazed and no-one gives a fig.
He speaks frankly of war’s horror, and the sacrifice paid in more than blood and reminds us of the women, the ‘true sisters’ who also fell.
Bugler Jack Walker’s poignant Last Post inevitably is accompanied by our sniffles and tears.
But if we cannot weep together at such times, when can we? And if we can’t be angry at the waste of humanity, at such times, then our subservience to conflict over resolution will prohibit us further complaint.
For more than 30 years, Jack has been the Bugle Boy for Company ‘D’.
This year, as in years past, there is a given point in Jack’s rendition of the Last Post where you would swear the bugle itself gently chokes back a tear with the bleak sadness of it all.
Jack says it’s because he’s getting on in years and not breathing right and that the bugle is too cold and the brass hasn’t warmed up enough for the notes to slip through without touching the sides.
Sure. He always says that. But I suspect it’s because the doleful cry of his bugle is the very lament of shared sorrow. And like many villagers and visitors, he is thinking of kith and kin who went to war.
For years, Jack has paid homage to those in uniform who never returned to this dear village. Some went and never came back. His own Aunt lost two sons within seven months, he later tells us.
Some went and returned but never really came back to us because they were forever damned and damaged, lacerated in body and mind; the walking wounded.
Couldn’t speak about it. Wouldn’t speak about it. Told they shouldn’t speak about it and to get on with their lives even though they were dying inside. Sometimes through anger. Sometimes through pain. More often through both.
After the service, Keith invites everyone across the road to the Daylesford RSL for the traditional Gunfire Breakfast.
It is a wonderful and more than ritual gift to the community and, inside the RSL, it is warm and cosy and the aroma of lashings of scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages, tea and coffee in styrene cups, lifts the mood and conversation as we look around to see if all the darling regulars are there. Not all are. I hear someone say, it’s to be expected. They can’t go on forever. Their legs give in. And the cold’s too much for them. And it’s too emotional as they get older.
I sit down at a table with long-time cobber and local real estate agent John Evans and Jack Walker and Keith Pyers and, as usual, there’s good natured banter and greetings in the room and we’re all up for a yarn.
Before too long we’re talking about the torrid circumstances in which some returned servicemen and women live; their dismal superannuation payouts and miserly death benefits, and of how they were brutally betrayed by the Government, Greens and Independents last June when the promised passing of the Fair Indexation Bill was voted down.
Keith was a uni student in the 1950s when he and 49 other 18 year-olds were despatched to Woodside in South Australia to train as National Servicemen.
“They needed more 18 year olds to make up the numbers, so they just picked 50 Victorians along the Western Railway line. That’s how they did things in those days.”
Keith is unimpressed with the treatment endured by Veterans.
“It is urgent for the Government to address this issue. It is one thing to celebrate Anzac Day — but another thing not to remember the men and women who need our support as a result of their service and sacrifice to this country.”
“We forget,” said John Evans, “that commitment by a young lad was also a commitment by everyone around him, even his footy club; everyone is affected, his family — sometimes drastically.
He continued:
“As a community we are duty bound to look after him and any ongoing battles he might have.
Look at it this way; he is not being allowed to come home and live in peace; the peace that he fought so hard for is denied to him — and his family. We’re not supposed to live on the dole. The dole is a support. But you should be able to live on a veteran affairs pension, especially if you’ve been traumatised and hurt in any way.”
In all these months of involvement with this story, I have not met a single person who is not horrified at the plight of the Diggers. For decades, there has been this misconception that our defence personnel enjoy brilliant pensions and superannuation schemes, second only to politicians.
We also naturally suppose that is the case because even if defence force members do not go to war, they sign up to be prepared to do so.
Nothing could be further from the truth. They have been ripped off. By experts. The Australian Government.
It was political treachery writ large in the handwriting of deceptive Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and her lying frontline troops.
Senator Kate Lundy, even unto the 11th hour, deceived the Diggers into believing she would be voting for the Bill. She did not. The Bill was defeated by one vote. Hers.
Documents concerning this were leaked to me and I wrote about this betrayal in Independent Australia shortly afterwards. The article has now prompted more than 2,000 comments from Diggers and supporters, from rank and file alike.
The truth is, our returned service personnel have been despicably treated by successive governments, which is why the Opposition hasn’t slapped this issue on the Parliamentary table.
Geezus, why would you, when you’ve got a feral parliament and house business to attend to, like allegations of sexual harassment, rorting taxi fares and paying for prostitutes on credit cards – and that’s just for starters – and we’re talking politicians here, not constituents. Get real!
The Vietnam War is not over for our Veterans. Now they are at war with their government. And this one they are not going to lose. Some have died in the past year, fighting this injustice.
Mates joke that the Government is behaving like James Hardie Industries in avoiding its responsibilities and duty of care and hoping that the Diggers will die out before Justice does. Many a true word spoken in jest.
All this against the backdrop of outrageous increases in parliamentary pensions, the continual political scandals involving the abuse of public funds and rorting of the system, the scandals and continuing mismanagement within the Defence Force, the $4 billion slashing of the Defence budget and the opulent funds available for everyone else it seems — except the Diggers. Just the other week, Australia gave $7 billion to the Euro International Monetary Fund.
The 100th anniversary of ANZAC will be celebrated between 2014-18. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.
Wouldn’t you think that the Gillard Government would do the right thing! It is unfathomable that Tuesday’s Federal Budget would not bring the Veterans some joy and dignity.
Diggers have been treated as if they are whingeing malingerers, feigning the likes of PTSD and other psychological disorders, including the physical and mental after effects of Agent Orange and other deadly chemical weapons, undeserving of a fistful of dollars extra in their pension, constantly having to prove that the injuries to body, mind and soul are legit.
Some have documented their treatment at the hands of Veteran Affairs and bureaucracy and discussed how often they feel exhausted and demoralised by constantly having to justify their very existence. This eats into the self-esteem of some.
The Gillard government would have them turning up their slouch hats and begging on street corners to buy a loaf of bread.
- Artist Geoff Maidens drew inspiration from a photo of Military Cross winner and Fair Go campaigner, Brigadier (Ret’d) Neil Weekes to compose this evocative image of a Digger with a begging bowl that says it all.
I know from my discussions and meetings that these human beings are hurting inside. If you take time to read some of the comments, you will read their poignant stories in their words, not mine.
They also efficiently and eloquently demolish the many facile and febrile arguments staged by the government’s contrived accounting methods. So I’m not going through them all here. This is not just about the money.
The muscular Fair Go campaign by the Diggers (and this term of course, has come to embrace matelots, navy and air force) took Canberra by surprise.
The campaign has sustained energetic momentum and bombarded politicians and ministers with emails and letters and exposed their truly ridiculous and lazy pro forma responses.
Moreover, Diggers have now galvanised themselves into a formidable electoral bloc. Given family members, friends and supporters they could easily muster enough political firepower to cause havoc in marginal seats. And intend to.
They have forensically analysed all seats and electorates — and know how many Veteran pension recipients are in each and what percentage of votes it will take to dislodge incumbents from their soiled trenches.
Watch out Julia Gillard. Watch out Craig Thomson. Watch out Mike Kelly. Watch out Warren Snowdon. Watch out Stephen Smith and Penny Wong and Kate Lundy and Wayne Swan. Watch out all of you. Greens, Coalition and Independents alike.
These military trained citizen activists are the real deal. What is more they have an impressive discipline and a loyal fraternity that their adversaries lack.
In the beginning, mainstream media and online media for that matter, seemed to have a blackout on the plight of the Diggers, but their persistence earned them a major breakthrough when Josie Taylor, presenter of ABC 7.30 Victoria, covered the story, interviewing Diggers and family members, including grandparents Lois and John Griffiths and Military Cross Winner and catalyst, Neil Weekes.
And there were cheers all round when Defence Minister Stephen Smith, who had arrogantly refused to meet with the Diggers and had been ducking and weaving questions on the subject of veteran pensions, was cornered on the subject whilst on a visit to Victoria.
If you want to see what our Defence Minister looks like when he doesn’t want to be questioned about the great unwashed for whom he is responsible, click here.
The campaign and general supporters have secured widespread print and electronic space. There is still much to do and they’re onto it.
There are a number of stalwarts and motivators who regularly contribute to the comments section that has now morphed into an important historical document of Veteran activism, as well as proving to be a great resource and information exchange.
It has also reunited people who had lost contact with one another through time and circumstance.
Some comments in particular are very moving. It is wonderful to see people talking openly about their feelings, circumstances and health issues. As managing editor David Donovan said, it has become a meeting place. And it’s so uplifting to see different personalities and moods shine through and to see irreverent humour expressed in what has become a gripping ongoing conversation, like an ebook.
I know what people mean when they say ‘it’s about the journey.’
Last night, in order not to single anyone out in particular, I decided I would just include in this article whatever was the last comment posted. It turned out to be none other than KBHussell. I feel that the other gentlemen will consider KB a worthy representative.
Ken’s comment says much about the calibre of these men; their intellect, their life-experience and their contempt for spin and artifice. They tell it like it is. So refreshing.
KBHussell says:
3 May, 2012 at 10:59 pm
It is against my better judgement that I post this note tonight.
I am old, tired, angry, frustrated …………………and emotional. All good reasons not to post you would agree? To hell with it…………when you are hot you are hot OK? Here goes:
Dear Mr. Abbott,
In previous notes to IA, I have mentioned my first tour in Vietnam, 1967. Socks were in short supply for the diggers, the wharfies went on strike and defence stores were not always readily available. The posties went on strike, hence the “punch a postie” cry that went out.
On previous notes I have also mentioned our readiness for War in 1939. The lack of preparedness by our Government has been suggested as close to treason. Battle hardened troops from the desert were moved to PNG in uniforms ideal for the desert but hardly appropriate for a jungle war against battle hardened troops, experts in jungle warfare and camouflage, who out numbered us six to one. The only thing missing from our uniforms was a big light on each chest which said “aim here”!!.
Our troops today in Afghanistan are also ill equipped, relying on big brother, the good old U S of A, to keep us in the fight. Nothing has changed has it? As I write, the good old US of A troops are in our Northern regions by the hundreds, which will in time, become thousands. What was the saying in WW 11? Over sexed, over paid and over here? Nothing has changed eh?
Absolutely nothing has changed. In a previous note I suggested that “this precious stone set in a silver sea” – OUR COUNTRY – MUST be totally self-sufficient in terms of our National Defence. Nothing has changed there either.
Tonight, I hear “SHE” is reducing our Defence budget by $4 Billion in order to achieve a budget surplus!!!. Heaven forbid! Where are you Mr. Abbott? Where is your spokesman for Defence? What is the Coalition plan for long term defence our great country? Where are the Angus Houstons, Peter Cosgroves and all other “high flyers” formerly of the defence force? If they cannot hear the message – or should I say warnings – then they must be very comfortable in their lounge chairs and with their big pensions. Where is the RSL?!!!
What is it going to take to bring this government back to earth? Another bombing raid on Darwin? subs in Sydney Harbour or several thousand troops from another country to be hiding in our remote areas?
Mr.Abbott, in a recent note to you regarding your dream run down the highway with all lights green, I received an automated response. I hope this time, I will receive something from you – from your heart – about where you really stand in relation to the security of OUR country. Please forget your current plan of a daily bashing of the government and “her”. A wise man once said, “do not sweat the small stuff and everything is small stuff” – except of course the defence of our country and its veterans.
There is no question that those who believe in a fair go for Veterans and their families have proved the case well beyond prima facie. The Budget should acknowledge this.
What more do they have to do Julia? Give blood? Some of them have already done that.
Give them a Fair Go.
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29 Comments
Dear Tess, thank you. Thank you for supporting us so bravely and staunchly, when you have your own battles to fight. Thak you for putting into words what we all feel. And thank you for quoting KB Hussell, who so many times has said what I, and I’m sure many others, want to say but can’t find the words for. he certainly is a fitting representative of the cause!
Dear BARNEY WARD, thank you so much for what you have written here.
Little do you all realise what a personal – and professional – inspiration you continue to mean to me.
And I am not the only one to feel this. Your steadfastness and courage in fighting the good fight reminds us of a spirit that we seem to have lost in many facets of life.
For me, and Independent Australia – it is a privilege to be walking at least part of the way with you, on The Great Journey.
I have no doubt you will secure Justice. Justice for one is Justice For All, in this case.
[...] Click here to download article. [...]
What a great summary of the thousands of comments your site has collected!
You have captured the essence of it all Tess.
No more need be said, except by out political leaders Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Christine Milne and Warren Truss, who could easily announce that from 1 July 2012 all forms of military superannuation pensions will receive the same percentage increase twice yearly, as is applied to the age pension, and that the DVA disability pension be fully restored – just as they were challenged to do by Gina Rinehart, Peter Criss, three ex-service chiefs and a number of notable Australians recently.
I love the close of your article Tess. Keep up the good work all!!
Dear BERT HOEBEE, thank you for this, and spot on re the pollies.
PRIME MINISTER JULIA GILLARD and TREASURER WAYNE SWAN have enough
time left to announce this addition to Tuesday’s Budget.
A Fair Go is all that is asked!
The politicians and military leaders of the day, after being exposed as butchers who carelessly threw our poorly trained , badly equipped and shamefully led volunteers, onto the wrong beach.
These Australian Prime ministers went on a campaign of glorifying the almost murder of our sons, as an emergence of the Australian nation out of boiling maggot riddled putrefactive corpse’s of no-man’s land.
A twisting of the awful truth to cover their shame.
The truth is the Australian spirit was taken to Anzac Cove along with our New Zealand brothers as evidence of the toughness and comradeship born of a people battling to develop a nation in the face of drought, fire and flood.
Politicians have used that same glory bullshit over again each time they commit our youth to go die in some one else’s wars.
They are a disgraceful lot of deceivers who one day will be seen as careless with our service men and women’s lives.
Anzac day should be the day we as a people remember how badly we have been led into war by politicians like Menzies who said, “my brain was too valuable to be wasted on the battle fields” of World War One, but who spent his career conscripting others.
As for Howard The graph above parted way with normal pensions in 1996.
Dear Tess!
It is refreshing to know that you care.
I have been keeping a tally of my family and friends who will not vote for the Oxygen Thieves currently in government. The current figure is at two hundred and thirty one.
If Labor thinks that the Queensland election was “blood letting”, they won’t believe the blood bath that is coming their way, electorally!
What bothers me more than anything though, is the “worlds greatest treasurer”, mouthing platitudes on Anzac Day, and using his father’s and grandfather’s service to imply that he might be cut from the same cloth!
Mr Wayne Swan, on online SMH: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/swan-recalls-suffering-of-grandfather-father-20120424-1xjin.html#ixzz1t0LrpQjN , was quoted as going to say the following:
”What my grandfather, my father and those who lie in numerous graves across the world believed was this: that a nation founded on the universal principle of equality is a nation worth fighting for,” Mr Swan will say. ”That’s what Anzac Day means to me.” ”That value of equality was proclaimed at Australia’s birth. It was proved at Gallipoli. It guided us during the conflicts that followed. It continues to guide us today.”
It is a pity that the so called “UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY” failed to guide him when it came to the vote for the “ DFRDB Fair Indexation Bill”
Mr Swan just proved in writing that he is a bloody hypocrite!
I think that he should be reminded of that, daily, until election day!
Joe W.
Menzies broadcast to the nation, announcing his; “melancholy duty to inform you officially that, in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war on her, and that, as a result, Australia is also at war”. This practice has almost become a convention.
The Question to be asked is. What if in the future, decisions to go to a war are found to be illegal and service men and women, who are in need of compensation or legal protection, are put beyond the protection of the law by an action of one person?
For example, what if we find that a future government or the High Court decides that there are no grounds to continuing to pay compensation to war widows or veterans because the actions of previous Prime Ministers were not constitutional?
The Australian Constitution vests ‘command in chief’ of the Commonwealth’s military forces in the Governor- General who exercises this power on advice of His or her Ministers.
Decisions about war and the deployment of Australian forces, have, incrementaly become a matter for the Prime Minister of the day.
We, the people, deserve a more democratic process in place before making this, grave decision.
I believe that the decision to go to war can only ever be made by a joint sitting of both houses, sitting as the Parliament of Australia, including the Governor General representing the Queen, and as Chief of the Armed Forces.
This would remove such assumed power from the Executive and in particular from the Prime Minister.
To make absolutely sure, the High Court should then decide that the Parliament acted legally and within the Constitution.
Dear JOHN HOWARD154,
Re both of your comments. How right you are. You make some salient and important observations and points.
If the likes of GEORGE W BUSH, JOHN HOWARD and TONY BLAIR and others
were charged with War Crimes in the future, given the confirmation of their notorious Coalition of Liars, it would be an entirely justifiable charge, in my book.
I think we are not far off, when ‘We The People’ will be able to legally call to account political leaders and politicians who fraudulently assign their countries to war.
RINEHART AND DOWNER SUPPORT THE DIGGERS
Rinehart and Downer join bid to boost ADF pensions
by: Chip Le Grand
From: The Australian
April 30, 2012 12:00AM
BILLIONAIRE Gina Rinehart has joined corporate leaders and former military chiefs in pushing for an overhaul of the way that defence pensions are indexed, placing the federal government under renewed pressure to improve the financial entitlements of retired service personnel.
Ms Rinehart’s name is prominent on a statement issued by the Alliance of Defence Service Organisations’ Fair Go campaign, which urges the leaders of the three major political parties to support changes to bring indexation of military superannuation pensions into line with the age pension, which, since 2009, has been adjusted twice yearly to keep pace with the cost of living.
Where age pensions are pegged to a sophisticated formula that takes account of average earnings, cost of living and inflation, military pensions are pegged to inflation only. The peak welfare organisation for the armed services estimates that as a result of the discrepancy, there is a growing super gap between retired defence personnel and other workers.
Ms Rinehart put her name to the statement along with retired chiefs of the navy, army and air force, other corporate leaders and foreign minister in the Howard government Alexander Downer.
Former navy chief David Shackleton said the value of military pensions had diminished in real terms and “a lot of folk who have done a lot of things for this country are effectively being discriminated against”.
“It wouldn’t be difficult to be extremely cynical about politicians who talk about fairness, equity and doing the right thing — and sometimes are quite pleased to stand next to soldiers when they have got their medals on — and don’t actually follow up with actions,” Mr Shackleton told The Australian.
“This is a significant omission and they need to fix it.”
Former army chief Peter Leahy said retired Defence personnel had become frustrated by the promises made by politicians and their failure to deliver.
A private member’s bill to change the method of indexation introduced by Liberal senator Michael Ronaldson was last year voted down by Labor, the Greens and Nick Xenophon.
“Leadership is about looking after others before yourself and in this case, the politicians are missing in action,” Mr Leahy said.
Mr Leahy took aim at the federal government’s Special Minister of State, Gary Gray, who last week defended the current pension arrangements. Mr Gray told Perth Radio 6PR: “The reason we don’t do it the other way is simply based on cost. We signed up to an arrangement and we will honour that arrangement.”
The government estimates that adopting age-pension indexation for Defence pensions would cost $1.7 billion over the forward estimates of the federal budget.
Retired Air Vice Marshall Peter Criss, one of the organisers of the Fair Go campaign, said the indexation changes were needed to protect recipients of the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefit Scheme introduced by the Whitlam government and its replacement, the Military Superannuation Benefit Scheme, which was introduced in 1991.
Dear JOEW, thank goodness for your comment. I almost quoted TREASURER WAYNE SWAN’s Anzac Day address – but it was riddled with putrid hyprocrisy and coming as it did so soon after his National Press Club appearance, I just couldn’t do it. It is totally valueless. After what you’ve written I am so glad I didn’t.
I love your term ‘ oxygen thieves!’ It says it all.
Where do these dudes get off ? The gravy boat, I guess.
Would TREASURER SWAN please inform us of the value of his superannuation upon retirement – or eviction of office ?
More please Joe!
Dear Tess
You have today become a true champion of military superannuants. Your article was beautifully written, articulate and gut wrenching. You have managed to capture all the important facts of the Fair Go campaign. There would be very few people outside of veterans who understand our predicament as well as you do. And you do this in spite of the persecutions you have faced from the National Bank and their corrupt solicitors. A good test of a soldier has always been would I follow you into war. Tess, I would gladly stand beside you in any fight. For your heart and your courage is as good as I have seen in a long time.
God bless you Tess Lawrence.
Tess,thank you so much for your continuing support of ex-servicemen and women as we up the ante on the Gillard small g government. They insist on treating us with contempt and disrespect as they believe that we are not an effective voting force. It will be sweet justice to get rid of these dysfunctional political pretenders.
Dear JOHN GRIFFITHS, your words mean such a lot to me.
I want you to know, that everytime I go into the Court, I carry your support and words in my heart and in my mind, to sustain me and give me courage. I feel you are standing beside me.
It is worth noting that the NAB and its lawyers presented the GILLARD VERSUS DIGGERS story and the comments to the SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA, as evidence, to try and disprove I was ill ( diagnosed as PTSD ) as a result of the death threats to force me to change my evidence, by the lawyer from McKean Park.
I wasn’t in Court that day to defend myself, because of my illness, but that didn’t stop them from trashing me.
Your plight made me uncurl from a foetal position to write your story, although still bedridden at that time.
I know what it means when a soldier says he would follow you into war. Given that I am a congenital coward, I would ask if I could follow you into Peace, on that road less travelled.
Thank you John Griffiths. We owe you and your Brethren peace in your time – and financial peace too.
I thank you for your Blessing. It is an Honour.
Hello
Do you get the distinct impression that all Govt’s wants us to go away. A member of a previous Govt Nick Minchin basically calls us greedy for wanting a condition of service. The Treasurer spoke in March about his Grandfathers Military service but this merely highlights his hypocritical attitude. Today the Govt has now promised CASH payments for school aged children at a cost of approx $2,000,000,000 which doesn’t have to be spent on education expenses. Our Problem is our claim for $100,000,000 over 4 years for FAIR INDEXATION is too small. Rather than ask for Indexation with AGE Pensioners we should ask for Indexation in line with the Politicians.(At one time wasn’t DFRB/DFRDB very closely aligned with the Politicians Super Scheme Pre 2004). Tess,Barney,KBHussell and all other contributors keep up the good fight. WE WILL WIN.
Dear ALLANESSERY, thanks so much. I just don’t get it, in terms of successive Australian Governments behaving so contemptuously towards you all. Especially in comparison with the obscene superannuation pensions that pollies enjoy.
It surely is a matter of short time, to when the GILLARD GOVERNMENT will be dislodged. So it is time we heard more emphatic pledges
from the Coalition – in writing – about rectifying the pension
injustice. In my opinion it should be backdated as well.
Dear RICHARD FULWOOD, yes! I do have that feeling! NICK MINCHIN is
yesterday’s man, singing yesterday’s chorus. I feel he has been put up to it because the Coalition does not intend to adjust your pensions. What do you think ?
I didn’t know about the alignment with the pollies super scheme – that may be where that misconception arose – about you enjoying fab superannuation pensions, etc, on a par wth pollies. Nothing could be further from the truth!
We will win. Losing is not an option.
Hey Tess,
Once again , you’ve done good! – Very touching & sobering.
Hope you’ve got your business sorted and you’re back on the narrow and winding!
Our retiree, Minchin (SA) on his parliamentary pension can’t be aware of our early history and how we’ve been shafted by successive governments since 1972.
You take care & Thanks
Michael of Warnbro
Dear MICHAEL, thank you for your words and support.
You are so right about MINCHIN and his parliamentary pension.
Did Australia get value for what it paid out to him in his
years of office, and now in retirement – where the real mega money starts rolling in?
Nice work if you can get it.
Tess
I am not saying that we enjoy the same benefits as the politicians. I did get it incorrect as I meant to refer to the Judges pension which I was told many years ago started after 20 years service and at a similar % of retirement pay. I don’t see the coalition delivering their promise either as the answer will “The outgoing Labour Govt left us a larger deficit than even we imagined and we will need to restore us back to the black before we can fix this problem.” In other words “So long and thanks for all the fish.”
I came back from Vietnam on a stetcher with multiple gunshot wounds to the head, face, neck, and knee. I got out of hospital as quickly as I could because we were shorthanded and at war. I was promoted by the CGS to captain after I had recovered and had some later operations to remove abcessing shrapnel. Most was left in the side of my head and spinal column with multiple ruptured discs as well as the other GSWs to the head and face and knee. I was persuaded to decline the promotion and take a post with the RAR again in SVN which I did. Within a few months they were trying to destroy my career and the medical officers organised false reports on me which they then used to destroy me.
The army medical officers did that and two of those same officers rose to the top of the Army and Defence Medical Corp. They knew what had been done to me and when I put in an FOI when things got really bad they feared for their safety. They did all they could to destroy me and my entitlements under the DFRDB Act. I had to fight them for seven years in both the Federal Court and the AAT (where I forced a change of the FOI Act). When I won and the courts ordered a fair review they fraudulently appointed other ADF medical reservists to destroy my review. Fortunately I exposed them consistently and they were finally reprimanded severely by the General Staff.
This was not simply the politicans that were doing this it was our own medical staff. There were psych officers that were writing false reports on people they had never even seen let alone interviewed and some were dismissed from the service because of it. What they did to me was so unfair that I was able to have it redressed. The politicians had written the DFRDB Act so harshly that they used it to destroy untold veterans entitlements. The letter by Nick Minchin of 3 May 2012 in the Australian just shows us what these rotten politicians do in their corrupt and unfair pursuit of power.
Things were so bad that in aprpox 1986 four veterans took weapons and shot four medical officers and a D noptice weas put on the shootings. We had had enough and they had to wake up to themselves. I know this for a fact.
We expect nothing from them and are not surprised as to what they do. If Abbott fails us this election and subsequently look out.
The ALP is now history over that last bill and their refusal to pass it by one vote. Lundy will be held to account for that. We are sick of their lies.
Dear RICHARD FULWOOD, nor did I read it that way, Sir.
And just heard that the GILLARD GOVT is referring to tomorrow’s Budget as a ‘ FAIR GO ‘ budget. Excuse me.
Now they’ve nicked your slogan, as well as your pensions!
The Standto website has some good dot points regarding Sen Minchins letter, one of the primary reasons are the APS super bill is too high but wasn’t that the point of the Future Fund.
Dot Point Rebuttal
Minchin is completely wrong in suggesting that we seek improved indexation. We don’t. We seek restored indexation to the level promised.
Minchin is completely wrong in saying that payments are maintained in real terms.
They’re not. The ABS says so.
Minchin is completely wrong to say that we are getting what we signed up for. We signed up for a pension that maintained purchasing power.(Jess/Barnard/MSBS Book etc). The facts speak for themselves. 40% real loss of purchasing power over the last
twenty years! We also have the historical evidentiary trail
It is a condition of employment. Still promising the troops today (2011 MSBS book)!
It is vested property. Read Jess – has Minchin
We have it in writing. .
Provision should have been and continue to made to honour the condition by properly
budgeting for it as a non-discretionary financial obligation.
It is not of veterans’ making that the governments (various persuasions) failed to do
so, and the consequences should NOT be visited upon us – it is a community issue.
Only after THAT has been established need we mention how little it would cost.
Look at the red, purple and blue lines, and consider whether you really think it is just
wilful not to honour an employment condition!
What union or industry would stand for that!
Perhaps Nick (the government) should be invited to apply the same logic to
parliamentary super. Labor is busting to put the budget into surplus. The move would
be noble and even-handed!
o If we are maintaining value in “real terms” then let’s bring all the pollies
to CPI
Wasn’t Minchin Finance Minister – same dark arts skills as Tanner?
40% cumulative in 20 years below MTAWE and nearly 100% compared to pollies,
what drop off would he like to see before the troops have been hurt enough?
Matthews acknowledged that if a better index becomes available the govt should
consider using.
The real issue is revealed – the APS bill is too large – so the unique nature of military
service takes a hit for the greater good – this is the real reason. BUT – so what? If
they have an employment entitlement also – it too, should be honoured.
• Ronaldson’s admission on Ch10 on 15 Apr – “Previous Liberal Government
should have done it and my colleagues agree”.
Reveals real reason – cost! Future Fund $8.5b sitting in cash – quarantine and draw down (still earn interest)
How are the defence superannuants payments being maintained in real terms.
These are the dot points from the Standto Website and I just heard our treasurer refer to the FAIR GO budget. Is nothing sacred and by the way I think IA is a great website for helping us. Thank you.
Dear WADE COX, what you have written here is astounding and just tears away at our belief systems.
This is disgusting and I am so glad that you have had the moral courage to post this comment Wade.
It is repugnant to think that those charged with your guardianship should behave in such a criminal and unjust fashion. Corruption is too polite a word for it.
I salute you Wade. Goodness knows what it has done to your life and those around you.
In relation to the shootings and the D Notice.
If anyone has any information or documents about this,I’m interested in following up this matter.
Please send a confidential email to DAVID DONOVAN: –
editor@independentaustralia.net
Dear RICHARD FULWOOD, this is a fantastic list of dot points from STAND TO – thanks so much for posting them – great help – especially in view of the propaganda put about by the GILLARD government and its trolls.
And snap re the pilfering of the FAIR GO slogan – I mentioned it in a comment too! They are without shame ! And thank you for your kind words about IA!
Onya Richard!
If anyone has any information about the tragic death of DIGGER HUGH WILSON please email DAVID DONOVAN on
editor@independentaustralia.net
Here’s a link to The Age online: –
http://www.theage.com.au/national/police-cleared-over-fatal-colac-crash-36-years-on-20120507-1y822.html
Thanks for writing this Tess. Your support is greatly appreaciated – as many of us have acknowledged before.
I was pleased to see that someone had shared a link to your article on Facebook – and this had been shared from another person. Your stuff is definitely getting out there.
Dear KEN MARSH, thank you for your lovely words. You must all know that I am unashamedly on your side in this one. And that the article and the support and mateship of these comments and contact has helped me so much in return.
It is great to hear about Facebook and I appreciate this feedback.
We now know that the Fair Go campaign is inching its way forward and with diabolical consequences for the GILLARD GOVERNMENT as the next Federal election will surely attest.
How dare TREASURER WAYNE SWAN trash you at the NATIONAL PRESS CLUB and then nick your slogan ‘ Fair Go ‘ for tonight’s Budget.
Send him an invoice. And make sure you backdate it for all the decades you have been denied parity.
AATTV Veterans return to Canungra 50 years on
25 July 2012
VETERANS of Australia’s most distinguished unit of the Vietnam War will gather for perhaps the last time in South-East Queensland this weekend.
Former members of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the unit’s formation with a series of functions, including a nostalgic return the AATTV’s spiritual home at the Jungle Training Centre, Canungra.
AATTV National President Major General John Hartley AO said the AATTV was unique for many reasons.
“For the 10 years of its existence from 1962 to 1972 the AATTV was constantly on operations and never served on Australian soil,” General Hartley said.
“Of the almost 1000 men who passed through its ranks, 33 were killed and 122 wounded.
“AATTV members received the four Victoria Crosses awarded to Australians in Vietnam, two posthumously.
“The total gallantry decorations included 114 Commonwealth awards, 338 US medals, 366 South Vietnamese awards and 45 Cambodian awards, a record of gallantry unsurpassed in Australian military annals.”
Starting with 31 combat experienced officers and NCOs on July 1962, AATTV reached a peak strength of 217 in November 1970.
General Hartley said given the age of most of the AATTV veterans this 50th Anniversary is likely to be their last significant gathering.
“They were all experienced soldiers and time has thinned their ranks more than combat ever did,” he said.
“Although the AATTV never served on Australian soil, ever member posted to the unit attended a gruelling training and assessment course at Canungra before deployment and that is where they maintain their most significant Australian memorials.
“On Saturday they will dedicate a new memorial at the entrance to the camp, then hold a remembrance ceremony at the grove called Canh Na, Vietnamese for “Our Home”, where every AATTV member is commemorated.”
Dear BMCGURGAN, thanks for this about the CANUNGRA REUNION – will copy this and post it in the comments section on the DIGGERS versus THE GILLARD GOVERNMENT story.