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PO Box 4166, KINGSTON
ACT 2604
Patron:
His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC (Retd)
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ISSUE 224 November 2007
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| The Update is a monthly E-Letter (except for January) produced by the Defence Force Welfare Association (DFWA) 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. | ||
SENATE INQUIRY INTO COST OF LIVING FOR OLDER AUSTRALIANS
A current Senate inquiry chaired by Gary Humphries, Liberal Senator for the ACT, is being undertaken into the cost of living pressures on older Australians. This is a golden opportunity for Association members to lodge submissions expressing their views on the overall issue of the cost of living and the impact of inadequate indexation over time.
For more information on this inquiry, the terms of reference and how to lodge a submission, go to http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/clac_ctte/older_austs_living_costs/index.htm
THE new Defence public relations manifesto
The Daily Telegraph reports that the new Defence Instructions (General) dealing with Public Relations begins positively enough with a front-page commitment to "responsive" and "open" engagement with the media. The directive, signed by military chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston and top Defence bureaucrat Nick Warner, then devotes 20 pages to telling staff how to hide information from both the media and the public.
"To ensure that Defence's reputation is not damaged . . . all public engagement is to be carefully managed," it says. The document also warns senior military officers and top Defence bureaucrats to report "all media inquiries or approaches . . . whether informally or formally, officially or socially" to Director-General Public Affairs (DGPA) Brigadier Andrew Nikolic and his media operations unit.
The document can be seen as a push by public affairs, to control every piece of information coming from a defence organisation of 67,000 people that costs taxpayers $20 billion a year to run. “Any media inquiry or approach must be referred immediately to the Public Affairs Operations Centre," it says. "This will ensure that only accurate, co-ordinated, agreed and authorised information is provided."
The directive goes on to order all personnel to gain clearance for any public comment, including speaking at conferences, from their commander or branch head, who then must gain approval from their next higher authority. And the public affairs department "must" then be informed to ensure that an "impact assessment", whatever that means, is undertaken. The manifesto also demands that any detailed information to be publicly released must be provided by the "relevant subject matter expert" before it is forwarded to public affairs for release.
"Following appropriate co-ordination and authorisation, DGPA will release the information and/or imagery into the public domain."
Taxpayers devote more than $12 million a year to the Defence public affairs function and its PR/media staff are professional, responsive and efficient within the constraints of an unwieldy bureaucracy and the anti-media brass. The document provides an insight into where that money is being spent. The problem for Defence is that the lines between security, privacy and the public's right to know have been seriously blurred.
THE ELECTION AND INDEXATION
Not surprisingly, the indexation campaign has been the focus of much of the Association’s recent activity, in close consultation and cooperation with the Superannuated Commonwealth Officer’s Association (SCOA). Public meetings in the ACT region, letters to the editor in numerous national and local newspapers (especially in marginal seats) and formal representations to Ministers and candidates have kept hammering the issue.
The Association’s press release on Coalition and ALP Defence and Veterans Policies can be found on the Association’s website: www.rdfwa.org.au/new_information.htm
Labor’s shadow minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Alan Griffin, has discussed the ALP's Veterans' Policy with the Association but says he cannot address indexation or taxation issues in any real way until the Government releases the costing information provided by the Department of Finance.. The WA Branch has also met with Senator Nick Sherry to discuss the three main topics contained in the President's letter to Mr Rudd, and again received no assurances. Senator Sherry stressed that the ALP could not make any statement about Defence Pensions now for risk of being accused of being fiscally foolhardy.
The ALP’s election policy is to release publicly all actuarial figures relating to indexation etc when they were available. Neither Mr Rudd nor Senator Sherry has made any commitment either from an ALP perspective or from a personal point of view about where they stood on the indexation issue. Senator Sherry also advised he was very aware of the public meetings in ACT / Queanbeyan recently and also was well aware of the depth of feeling at those meetings, and also of the advertising campaign that SCOA / DFWA are running.
In the last of the last of 4 SCOA/DFWA public meetings n the ACT Region held on 31 October in Ainslie, ACT, to discuss indexation, was attended by about 350 people. Senators Lundy (ALP) and Humphries (LIB) and Mr Bob McMullan MP (ALP) attended along with Kerry Tucker (ACT Greens candidate). The outcome was predicable, with speakers all saying that they personally support higher indexation but they cannot convince their parliamentary colleagues outside Canberra. Nevertheless it would be safe to say that the sitting members are now treating the issue with more seriousness, and many of the attendees left the candidates in no doubt that the strong support for our position from Kerry Tucker was well received.
ELECTION POLICIES
Readers may wish to peruse the major election policies of the major parties, especially those relating to defence, veterans and health care. These can be found at:
http://www.alp.org.au/policy/index.php
http://www.liberal.org.au/about/ourpoliciesplans.php
http://www.democrats.org.au/policies/
http://greens.org.au/election/policy.php
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