PM backflips on ADF allowance cuts
Tony Abbott has offered an olive branch to independent senator Jacqui Lambie over pay for defence personnel, announcing the Government would not go ahead with a cut to allowances for servicemen and women.
But the Government will not budge on its 1.5 per cent a year wage rise, which effectively amounts to a pay cut because of inflation.
Lambie dines with "the devil himself"
Labor sympathetic to Lambie ADF stance
The Government has suffered a backlash after the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal last month handed down its recommendation for the 1.5 per cent increase and slashed allowances including cutting Christmas leave entitlements.
In a case of bad timing for the Government, the parsimonious pay offer coincided with hundreds of troops and air force personnel being deployed to the Middle East to take up the fight to Islamic State terrorists in Iraq.
Mr Abbott argued the Government would like to pay soldiers more but the Budget position did not allow it.
Labor leader Bill Shorten described Mr Abbott as “flag patriots” and accused him dudding soldiers fighting for Team Australia.
The Prime Minister said this morning that discretionary leave, food and motor vehicle allowances would be restored at a cost of $17 million. Defence Force chief Mark Binskin would need to find the money from within Defence’s existing budget.
“All of us would like to see our defence forces paid more but what’s possible with a $20 billion surplus is not always possible with a $40 billion deficit,” he said.
“I think we just have to be realistic about defence force pay.”
Senator Jacquie Lambie has opposed cuts to defence force pay and conditions.
Mr Abbott praised government backbenchers for working behind the scenes on the restoration of allowances as he conceded all of Senator Lambie’s demands could not be accommodated.
“She wasn’t the only one saying something needed to be done,” Mr Abbott said.
“What Senator Lambie does is a matter for Senator Lambie. We haven’t been able to meet all of her requests and frankly this Government is not in the business of listening to each and every member of the crossbench in the Senate and saying ‘Of course you can have what you want’.”
One of the harshest critics of the pay deal was Senator Lambie, a former soldier, who urged Diggers to turn their backs on politicians at Remembrance Day services.
She vowed to vote against all government legislation until the deal was improved but her aggressive stance put her at odds with Clive Palmer and triggered a series of events that saw her quit the Palmer United Party to sit as an independent.
Before Mr Abbott’s announcement, Senator Lambie had already rejected talk of a partial compromise, labelling it a “slap in the face”.
She said the Government should stump up a 3 per cent pay rise.
Senator Lambie had been scheduled to meet Mr Abbott today but the Prime Minister’s office postponed the meeting, upsetting the Tasmanian politician.
“I would have just thought that on behalf of the men and women and morale and our national security ... that he wouldn’t continually put it off,” she said.
