Australian Labor Party Surplus cruels Diggers Flights Home

numbercruncher said:

I love the political spin of everything - wasnt it the Liberals that sent our Diggers to this thankless hell hole that still supplies 90pc of the worlds Heroin circa a decade ago ?

You right our courageous Diggers should get a flight home - Permanently.

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Your Labor government have had plenty of opportunity to change the policy and bring them home.

numbercruncher said:

I have voted both Labor and Liberal - and Australian Fishing and Lifestyle party in Between

This country has an absolute enormous amount of habitual voters who vote according to how their Parents programmed them - atleast im a free thinker - the line between our two major parties is so blurred now that neither are more compelling than the other to me.

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Good Lord! Could have fooled me from the consistent Labor bias of your posts.

Just cottoned onto this issue, wouldn't you know it there's an ASF thread already. Fair-minded Australians should be incensed by the blatant lack of equity being shown here. And the lack of respect for Defence generally.

http://www.news.com.au/national/diggers-to-lose-annual-flight-home/story-e6frfkvr-1226366284823
About 27,000 Australian Defence Force members are single [and will lose their annual free flights home] and about 5000 of those are under 21. Married troops posted away from families are entitled to six free reunion flights a year.

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If we are to play the blame game, it's the Govt that asked Defence to make savings, but it's the Generals who went out picking the "low hanging fruit".

With all the money this Govt put up against the wall (what's our donation to the UN this week?) it's morally indefensible to go after our defence personel in this discriminatory way, when they're daily risking their lives for us. And for what? To save few bucks for the Worlds Greatest Treasurer? 27,000 X say $500ea = $13.5M saving each year? A few lousy bucks in a national budget.

Go to the registry before your next O/S tour boys and girls. Become a 'Working Family' and all welfare doors will open to you. Or become an asylum seeker, same deal.

I'm hearing on radio this morning that this decision has been reversed, single defence personnel will have their flights home re-instated. Right decision. The dollar saving was a mere $15M.