Leaders’ results leaked

By CPL Damian Shovell

SENIOR Air Force personnel became familiar with the drug screening process when they met at a recent senior leadership forum to discuss its implementation.

Thirty-five senior officers each provided a sample for testing during the full day of discussions, allowing them an insight into the process that will soon become common practice to all Air Force members.

Air Commodore John Quaife said being screened for illicit drug use was not a cause for professional discomfort, and he believes personnel will view the testing similarly.

“I think it will be received well. The zero tolerance policy accords with our personal values. The notion that you have a policy or a behaviour code but you do nothing to ensure that seems a little incongruous; the notion of doing testing will be well accepted by the group,” AIRCDRE Quaife said.

“It’s almost a matter of pride I should expect – of course I can be tested, and of course I won’t be found positive. The general assumption is that people are not using illicit drugs.”

Air Commodore Stewart Cameron also said he was comfortable with the testing procedure, which he thought “will be well understood and accepted by the vast majority in uniform”.

“I believe that it’s a tool to reinforce the zero tolerance that we have for illicit drug use that we have in the ADF,” AIRCDRE Cameron said.

“The message I sent to my troops is quite simply that when you’re doing your job, you have to be able to rely on the person beside you.

“You have to have confidence that the person beside you is capable of doing their job, because at the end of the day your life may rely on that person.

“This is the mechanism whereby we can reinforce that confidence.

“I’m confident that we have a safe organisation in operation.

“What it will do is give us some reassurance of that and make a very positive statement to everyone in Australia. It will give us that statement of quality.”

The senior leadership forum concluded with positive outcomes – and no positive drug tests.

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