THE DFWA MONTHLY UPDATE
 

	PO Box 4166, KINGSTON ACT 2604 Telephone:   02 6265 9530    Facsimile:  02 6265 9776 Web page:  http//www.rdfwa.org.au  Patron:  His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC (Retd) Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia	ISSUE 221   AUGUST 2007
The Update is a monthly E-Letter (except for January) containing items which are of interest to the Service and ex-Service community.  It is distributed to politicians, media outlets, senior Service officers and DFWA branches.  Branches are encouraged to distribute Update further to Association members and other interested people or organisations.  Update is also posted on the DFWA website.

Woodside Barracks to be retained. On 20 July, Dr Nelson announced that the Federal Government has decided to retain Woodside Barracks after detailed studies, which considered the advantages and disadvantages of either retaining the base or relocating its functions and facilities to the Edinburgh Defence Precinct.

Project Single Living Environment and Accommodation Precinct (Single LEAP). On 24 July Mr Lindsay announced the release of the RFP for Phase 2 of the $1.2 billion Single LEAP project. Four short listed consortia had been selected for the project which will deliver 3,535 modern single living-in rooms for Australian Defence Force personnel without dependants across 17 mainland sites.

 Reversionary Spouse Benefits after Re-marriage. The Association won a small skirmish in its battle to have military spouse pensions provided under the same terms as spouses of public service pensioners who re-marry after the age of 60. The measure was first promised in the May 2006 Budget. With some supportive questioning by Senator Sherry at a hearing on 5 July, on 27 July the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee recommended that the legislation, the Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill 2007, be amended to make the measure retrospective to the date of announcement. Read the report at: www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/fapa_ctte/super_07/report/report.pdf

 There appears to have been no indication of the Government’s response yet, and the Association is concerned that time may be running out to have the legislation passed before the election is called. 

Defence and Veterans’ Bills to be introduced. The Government has forecast only two Defence-related and one Veterans’ Bills to be introduced in the Spring sittings, subject to the calling of the election. They are: 

Defence Legislation Amendment Bill

- to give effect to certain recommendations of the 2003 Senate Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade References Committee inquiry into the effectiveness of Australia’s military justice system by simplifying summary procedures, simplifying rules of evidence, revising offences and scales of punishments, revising elections for trial, and facilitating appeals from summary authorities to the Australian Military Court; and

 Military Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill

- to provide clarity for the Military Superannuation and Benefits Board of Trustees in relation to indemnity issues; plus

 Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (2007 Measures No. 2) Bill

- to make minor amendments to the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 to correct minor errors and further align the veterans’ entitlements and social security means tests.

 Put It In Writing! In Administrative Appeals Tribunal Decision 1614 on 31 July, a DFRDB member who had retired and later reengaged for, initially, less than 12 months service was told that, because he had not made a written election not to become a member of the MSBS, his subsequent service was under the MSBS, to his considerable detriment. This was despite circumstantial evidence that indicated that he had made an oral election and, from subsequent letters, seemed to have been readmitted to the DFRDB when he first reengaged. The AAT found that the DFRDB Act is very clear: it has to be a written election (Form DM-100).

SA Branch Re-activation Brian Whinfield is starting to get our SA Branch up and running again. Interested members should contact him on whin73@adam.com.au

 NT News Ed Keogh has agreed to be our point of contact in the NT. His e-mail address is poppa.e@bigpond.com but he is just about to leave for O/S until late September. Any NT issues in the meantime should be addressed to either our ACT Branch - rdfwa.act@netspeed.com.au – for membership matters, or National Office – rdfwanat@ozemail.com.au – for policy matters.

 Indexation of Pensions National Office has been pleasantly overwhelmed by the interest of members in writing to politicians about the inadequacy of CPI indexation to maintain the living standards of military pensioners. For those who have not yet started writing, a suggested draft is at http://www.rdfwa.org.au/new_information.htm and you can get the address details for your favourite politicians from www.aph.gov.au/whoswho/index.htm

 Children of Vietnam Veterans Health Study The Association welcomes recent advice from the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Mr Billson, that he has now received the final report on the feasibility of conducting the health study, and his assurance that he will reconvene the former Consultative Forum to be briefed on progress and any decisions flowing from the report. It is understood that an announcement is imminent.

 Changes Within DVA The Association also welcomes Mr Billson’s statement of 8 August, assuring veterans that there will be no change to the level of services that DVA delivers to the Queensland veteran community. The Association recognises the challenges faced by DVA to maintain the level of its services to individual veterans while adjusting for the inevitable decline in the total numbers of veterans with the passing of the years.

 Defence Recruiting Up The Minister for Defence has announced the best total recruiting figures for 10 years, with 6,031 new full-time members and 2,893 new Reserve entrants in 2006-07.

New Defence Pay Structure On 10 August the Minister announced “a major advance in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) pay structure has been made to take it away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to remuneration.  The new ADF pay structure now meets contemporary workplace standards by recognising the work value of different military employment groups and rewarding them accordingly.  Significant pay adjustments will flow from the new pay structures.”

 The change “signifies the introduction of a new salary structure for enlisted personnel and the placement of warrant officer class one (equivalent) and all officers up to colonel (equivalent) rank in new graded pay structures.” Details are at www.defence.gov.au/dpe/pac/

 The Association has asked for the matter to be addressed at a Defence-run ESO briefing day on 18 September, by which time feedback on the new pay structure should have become available.

 RAAF Richmond to be retained.  On 11 August the Minister announced that “As part of its consideration of the Defence Force Disposition Program, the Federal Government has decided to retain RAAF Base Richmond on the outskirts of Sydney.”

 Pre-Election Statement by Presidents of ESOs. The presidents of 12 organisations representing serving ADF members and Ex-Service Organisations met on 13 August and released an agreed submission to 2007 Federal Election Contestants. It calls for all the parties to state their positions on the ESOs’ concerns when developing their election policies. The submission can be downloaded from www.rdfwa.org.au/new_information.htm

 Parliamentary Motion on TPI Pension Indexation Also on 13 August, the House of Representatives debated a motion moved by Mr Rudd that called on the Government “to index the remaining portions of the above general rate disability pensions to movements in male total average weekly earnings” The Association released a press statement, also available on our website, welcoming the debate.

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