You serve your country, sometimes overseas and in risky and/or dangerous circumstances and this is how the Government treats you - with a perfunctory administrative stroke of the pen
why can they not get recruits? spend millions on recruting adverts why not look after service people with health care and super or pension, all a right not a fight.
Risk life and health to serve then get screwed by government during what is left of your life!
The question is do the politicians get taxed on their super ? It is definitely not self-funded.
Where is the RSL ????
I served in the RAAF for 38 years and have war service. I have paid into DFDB and DFRDB my entire career and bought back my early time as a cadet. Please give careful consideration to what is an extremely strong case to provide fairness to all military personnel. Also a favourable decision will provide a strong recruitment and retention incentive.
No wonder the Defence Force can't get members when there are so many unhappy ex members of the defence force all with children and grandchildren who are potential recruits.
A billion of our taxes to be used for recruiting won't work! The 'carrot' for retention is DFRB after 20 years. That time in the service is the equivalent of life!
The 'curse of Kirribili' has to go!!!
I have always had an uneasy felling about this benefit;to be able to go into my 60th B'day with it being resolved would give my wife and I great peace of mind.
Will Whitlam (a legend in his own mind)legacies ever be obliterated? The opportunity for a fair-minded Government to rectify this iniquitous situation presents itself. Act now!
No wonder the retenion of current soliders is so poor when they see the benefits being erroded for past members. If you sign up under certain conditions of service they conditions should remain unchanged unless agreed by both parties.
I served my country for 25 years.I paid taxes then and I am still paying taxes on my DFRDB.Please Mr.Costello don't let the DFRDB be eroded like the Disability Pensions.
The DFRDB was one of my reasons for lengthy service and it is disappointing to have the benefits eroded by politicians who get nothing after retirement. Which pension system now encourages servicemen/women to serve for lengthy periods?
Well I am amazed! I have always wondered at the tax laws on DFRBD and considered that the amount of times the dollar is taxed surely makes it worth very little or nothing at all. Come on Mr. Howard, you may think us wives were merely in the kitchen, bare foot and pregnant, but let me tell you we were the ones there keeping our husbands together and still are. Stop this Taxation garbage and stop discrimination against the ones who have supported Australia at all times, and continue doing so.
after supporting this government all my voting life the disgraceful duplicity surrouding the dfrdb scheme will result in my vote going elsewhere and i suggest all ex members do likewise
Fair go mate. You always say how good the Aussie servicemen are when you refer to their overseas commitments. Reward those who have been and still are Australian soldiers sailors and airmen
I find it hard to fathom why any government or minister would support legislation that discriminated against a group of individuals who had spent their lives in the service of this country. I feel a deep sense of shame that this has occurred and disapointment in the political system that allowed it to occur.
I don't mind paying tax on my pension but i find it discriminates against me when i have to add the pension to my total taxable income. The ATO must love ex servicemen and women. Change the rules!!!
I gave 20 years service to this country & did it proudly. Why are we being discriminated against. Mr Howard I voted for you in the last election & previous ones, so I expect you & and your colleagues to do something for us. If it was your pension that was a problem, you would just change it. FAIR GO. isn't that the Aussie motto. Then give us a FAIR GO
I feel that it is high time the governments stopped discriminating against those who served their "Country" and the wives who stood behind them and in some cases, treated very badly. Veterans wives need all the support they can get when their husbands pass on.
Allowed me to represent in Vietnam - tried to stop me representing in Moscow - there is no fairness to tose who unwillingly put their lives on the line
Having given 27 years of service into the defence of the country, and having decided to resign to start a second career before my age made that difficult, I accepted a four year age-rank detriment on my entitlements. Since then, despite so-called cost-of-living adjustments, I have seen a growing gap between the original buying power of my pension and its actual day-by-day buying power. If I project this trend forards, I can see that the actual buying power of my pension will be inadequate to support my wife and I on even the most basic of lifestyles. The extension of the same provisions to DFRDB pensioners as to self-funded retirees would lessen the likelihod that we were impecuniary at a time when we are most vulnerable. Clearly, there will be a revenue consequence for government; however, I argue that, as a class of pensioners, ex-defence force personnel will need to seek a retrospective adjustment to their pensions to compensate for the difference between CPI adjustments and the changes in actual cost of living over several decades. There would be an expenditure consequence of this action.
What a discriminating and disadvantaging proposal toward the people who offer/offered their service to the country.
If the government plans to "simplify and streamline superannuation" by not taxing superannuation payments for those over 60, then why do they allow some meagre-brained mentality to introduce complications concerning "unfunded" schemes into the plan.
If the government is genuine about gratitude to its serving military and ex-service populations, then here is one opportunity!
"Simplify and Streamline" without the crap.
Defence personnel carry out the orders of politicians. We did not, and do not, go to war on our own, or endanger our own lives willingly. It is about time politicians on both sides recognised that there is a price to pay for their political policies.
I paid 5.5% of my salary into thid fund for 22 years, and was promised a 35% pension parity with current pay rates upon retirement. It hasn't happened and to now claim the scheme I paid so much money into is an "unfunded" scheme is a travesty of the governments obligation to its military personal
