Volume 48, No. 20, November 2, 2006
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PACKAGE DEAL: Members can now be posted out unaccompanied so their family can maintain housing and employment in their current location. Pictured is WGCDR Robert McKenzie and his family at RAAF Base Amberley.
Photo by LAC Mark McConnell
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MOVE as a mob or go it alone?
This will soon be the choice for ADF members with families and partners on posting.
Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence Bruce Billson recently announced that Australian members will have more flexibility in choosing locational stability for their families as an alternative to the traditional upheaval involved in relocating the family to a new location.
The new ADF Family Stability Initiative has been introduced to reduce the impact of postings on children’s education and spouse and partner employment. It follows recent ADF surveys that reveal that locational stability is increasingly being presented as a retention factor.
Under the initiative, members on posting out of their current area will be able to post unaccompanied, leaving their families in their current posting location. This means families will be able to maintain housing and employment continuity for spouses and partners, as well as avoid the upheavals associated with packing up and moving away from friends, extended family and other community networks. It will also enable children to remain at their current schools in familiar education programs and among their friends.
Members who choose locational stability and proceed to their new posting locations unaccompanied will receive in compensation a comprehensive conditions-of-service package that includes accommodation or rent and meals assistance, up to six family reunion visits a year and assistance with the additional costs associated with living away from their families.
“The ADF has a highly mobile workforce and Defence is mindful of the impact that frequent relocations might have on military personnel and their families,” Mr Billson said.
“This initiative is all about giving flexibility and choice while maintaining military capability needs.”
Mr Billson said that, while the new initiative offered members and their families flexibility dependent upon their individual circumstances and needs, there were also mutual benefits for families accompanying the member. Accordingly, this was not a decision that should be taken lightly.
“The ADF remains committed to keeping family units together where possible and ADF members whose families accompany them when taking up their new postings will continue to be supported by the full range of existing relocation and housing entitlements,” Mr Billson said.
The Family Stability Initiative will be introduced before the ADF’s end-of-year posting cycle and removes previous policy and administrative limitations for unaccompanied postings.
