GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO BREAK PROMISES ON DIGGERS PAY AND VETERANS PENSIONS Speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Defence Service Organisations (ADSO) as its National spokesman, David Jamison welcomed the RSL Boards statement condemning the Government for not only its recent paltry 1.5% per annum pay offer to the serving men and women of the ADF but also for hitting the hip pockets of the disabled veterans and War Widows communities by winding back to CPI only their hard won pensions indexation arrangements. The pay offer is clearly a pay cut dressed up as a pay rise since it barely represents half the expected annual inflation rate. It also falls well short of the expected rise in annual living costs over the three-year period that the offer will remain in force. As for how the Government has treated its Disabled Veterans and War Widows, it all too conveniently brushed aside its own emphatic statements made last year that using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) only is simply not the right index to keep pace with the cost of living. The use of it was deemed ‘unfair’ then, why not ‘unfair’ now? The RSL Board and its National President are on the mark when they label the actions of the Government in both cases as ‘failing to live up to its pre-election commitments’. In commenting on the RSL’s initiative further, David Jamison said that ‘both the ADF pay debacle and the veterans disability issue had been the subject of recent letters to the Prime Minister himself. The letters called on him to personally intervene and restore fairness and equity in the way those still serving in the ADF are treated, including those who once served and now form the veterans community. David called on the Government to ‘leave the way disabled veterans and war widows pensions are adjustments alone; restore faith in ADF wage fixing arrangements by removing provisions allowing behind closed door deals; supporting a fair wage offer that matches the expected increases in living costs over three years; and instruct Defence not to increase charges such as married quarter rents and ration charges by more than the salary percentage increase offered.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:32:45 +0000
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