State and territory governments will be asked to take a sympathetic approach to the unique circumstances of military service when assessing applications for the First Home Owners Grant, the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, Mal Brough said recently.

Mr Brough was commenting on the case of an RAN sailor and Gulf War veteran who had been fined by the Northern Territory Government because he could not occupy his home while deployed on short notice for operational service.

He said state and territory governments should recognise that sometimes members of the ADF will be posted and may not be able to meet all the terms of the grant.

“That simply requires a bit of flexibility and commonsense and I will be writing to the relevant governments asking them to reconsider their guidelines to account for anybody who may not be able to comply with all rules as a result of their service,” Mr Brough said.

“The rules are a matter for the respective state and territory governments and the arrangements between any home purchaser and those governments is a matter for those parties alone.

“However, ADF service and operational service often requires short notice postings and some rules relating to owner occupation in those cases may not be achievable.”

Mr Brough said like many other Australians, service people aspire to home ownership.

“They already make personal sacrifices and I would ask state and territory governments to take a sympathetic view on issues relating to short notice postings and operational service when enforcing the rules.

“I hope this particular case gets reviewed and I will be asking the respective state ministers to consider amending their guidelines, if necessary, to ensure service men and women are not unfairly disadvantaged,” Mr Brough concluded.

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