Super story sparks concern

I refer to an article “No change with super choice” (Navy News, July 14).

It was sourced from the Defence Personnel Executive and provided by the Director of Pay and Conditions. I don’t like the thrust of the article, but am particularly concerned with the statement that the DFRDB was “carefully designed to meet the special needs of ADF members”.

It wasn’t designed at all; it is the outcome of the fiery negotiations, between my predecessors in the Regular Defence Force Welfare Association (RDFWA), the Department of Defence and a parliamentary Sub Committee, which were initiated because pre-emptive changes contemplated to the superannuation of ADF personnel were extraordinarily disadvantageous and plainly wrong!

We won that fight to the degree that the Parliamentary Sub - Committee recommended that the RDFWA continue as a voice of service and ex-service personnel, in welfare matters; the Chiefs of the Services and relevant Ministers agreed.

In other words, our efforts to adjust the DFRDB to actually “meet the special needs of ADF members” resulted in official acknowledgement that there should be customer input into the welfare debate – at the time it was a unique achievement.

The RDFWA continues today to overview Defence Conditions of Service and we have a plethora of unresolved issues, some major-some minor, which we believe disadvantage service personnel.

Anyone interested should go to www.rdfwa.org.au

Terry Jones
Vice President,
RDFWA

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