WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

The "FAIR GO!" campaign is an issues based, apolitical campaign to correct existing wrongs and improve the well being of the defence family.

It began with the formal establishment of The Alliance of Defence Service Organisations (ADSO) comprising DFWA, NAA, RAAFA, RAR Corporation and ASASA prior to the 2010 Federal Election to influence all political parties to accept our objectives and in Government to implement them.

Objectives

1. Fair indexation of military superannuation pensions – because, unlike the Age Pension and other welfare and superannuation pensions, the purchasing power of all military superannuation pensions (DFRB/DFRDB/MSBS) is not protected.We wantall military superannuation pensions to rise twice each year by the same percentage as the Age Pension.
    
2. Equitable treatment of veterans' disability pensions – because the pensions of men and women who were disabled in the service of Australia have lost their relative value. We want removal of the remaining level of erosion of the value of the Veterans' Disability Pensions and adjustment of the Veterans' Disability Pensions (including the general rate, EDA, intermediate rate, temporary special rate and the special rate) in light of increased community living standards since 1997 as has happened for Age and other welfare pensions.
    
3. Certainty in military compensation – because ongoing indecision and uncertainty is stressful, unnecessary and unacceptable. We want a single compensation regime for all serving and former members of the ADF that recognizes the unique nature of military service.
    
4. Increased support for Veterans' health care – because mental health and residential accommodation for younger veterans in particular are issues that are increasing in frequency and severity. We want increased funding and DVA support for appropriate community accommodation in order to meet the needs of veterans with mental health issues as well as younger veterans in need of care.

Of those four major objectives we decided for the 2010 election to concentrate on the major single issue: military superannuation indexation because of its financial impact on retirement living to superannuates and upon their death continued reduced payments to their widow(er). The other objectives would continued to be advanced as appropriate.

Structure

The Campaign is governed by the National Coordination Council, consisting of the Presidents of each Alliance partner and the Campaign Director. It initiates and represents ADSO at meetings with the Government, Parliamentarians, political party organisations , government agencies and the national media. ADSO has a national support network of State/Territory and Local Area Action Groups in all federal electorates.

Strategy

The strategy promotes our objectives by direct and indirect means to the elected decision makers (Government, Parliamentarians and their political parties), the media and the electors (our defence community and the voting public).

Overview – Campaign's Progress

To date the Campaign has moved through two distinct phases and is currently in the third phase of direct action. You can track the details through our Updates and past events.

Phase 1 – Pre 2010 Election

We launched the Campaign publicly on the 11th July, just 40 days before the election amid the political circumstances our fair go for military superannuation indexation garnered no interest from the media, nevertheless we were successful in having the Coalition, the Greens and the Independents adopt our indexation objective as their election policy.

We failed to win the Government's acceptance of our fair indexation objective on the basis of the Matthews' Review recommendation that CPI was the right formula and the changed formula's implementation costs were too large.

The Coalition's commitment was limited to DFRB and DFRDB recipients aged 55 years and older only and excluded the current Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme (MSBS) contributors. We reluctantly accepted this on the basis that the Coalition in Government would remove these exclusions. Better to gain 80% of the objective than 100% of nothing.

The Campaign succeeded in having many voters support our cause at the ballot box and in some marginal seats, particularly in Queensland, did influence the result.

The election resulted in a minority Labor Government with an Agreement from the Greens and Independents to support its fiscal target of returning the Budget to surplus by 2012-2013.

Our challenge to the Government to reveal its costing assumptions and calculations on which the Government accepted the Matthews Report's recommendation was ignored.

See our Updates 1 – 6/2010

Phase 2 – Post Election to 16th June 2011

In line with the Coalition's pre election commitment to support fair indexation, the Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Senator the Hon. Michael Ronaldson, on 18th November 2010 tabled the Defence Force Retirement Benefits and Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Amendment (Fair Indexation) Bill 2010 in the Senate to index military pensions at the higher rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE) or the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI).

In early June 2011 the House of Representatives the Shadow Minister for Defence Personnel Mr. Stuart Robert MP, succeeded in having his Private Member's Motion for "support to the concept of the unique nature of military service and Coalition's policy to index military pensions to members of the DFRDB and DFRB schemes who are aged 55 years and over, to the higher movements in CPI, Male Total Average Weekly Earnings or Pensioner Beneficiary Living Cost Index", passed.

On the 16th June 2011 the Government, with the complicity of Greens' Senators Brown, Milne, Hanson-Young, Siewert, Ludlam, and Independent Senator Xenophon, who had all publicly supported fair indexation, voted down the Fair Indexation Bill. Read the Hansard report (pages 1-20)

The House of Representatives, just two weeks earlier unanimously agreed to support fair indexation of military superannuation pensions. (Read our media release Senate rejects Fair Indexation Bill.)

Our Defence Family was angered by this duplicitous action.

 See our Update 1/2011 and our Update 2/2011

Phase 3 – Since 16th June 2011 Direct Action

The Bill's rejection united the defence community, especially serving ADF men and women and their families, to direct action.

See update 3 / 2001

It created the opening of the Campaign's Second Front "People Power" under the leadership of retired Brigadier Neil Weekes AM MC. See his Just a Fair Go website here.

The Government continues to deny our requests for a full exposure of its costing used to defeat the Fair Indexation Bill and to dispute our costing we have submitted to them.

We will continue to engage with the Government and Parliamentarians in Canberra and in all federal electorates.

See Update 4/2011