The Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal has adjourned to consider the government’s offer of a 1.5 per cent per annum pay increase.
The 617-million-dollar deal includes reduced leave and allowances entitlements to account for the pay increase.
The Defence Force says while the pay deal is "not perfect" it is a "fair and reasonable arrangement."
Defence Force Vice-Chief, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, says Defence leadership tried to get the best deal possible in a time of both fiscal restraint and global uncertainty.
“It is not a normal outcome. It is well below that,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“You have to take in the broader budgetary and fiscal position. There is no doubt about that and I think most people in Australia understand that.”
The Returned Services League (RSL), the Defence Force Welfare Association and Labor have been critical of the 1.5 per cent offer, saying it is insulting and disappointing.
The Defence Force Welfare Association this week surveyed about 11-thousand serving members about the pay offer and found 90 per cent were dissatisfied.
DFWA’s Les Bienkiewicz says it was overwhelming response.
“People are feeling very, very disappointed that the government has let them down in this point of time. The ADF is expecting to work harder, do more with less and the pace of operational tempo is certainly not decreased.”
“Given that, they're now given a reduction in their salary and a reduction in their entitlements. We're pretty disappointed and insulted in fact.”
Vice Admiral Ray Griggs says ADF members were consulted.
“People are disappointed about it. We knew they would be.” He said.
“We have been talking to them for nearly a year now about the budgetary position, the fiscal position and the likely difficultly that were going to face through this negotiation in getting what would be considered a normal outcome.”
The pay deal is being considered while Australian aircraft have been sent to bomb IS targets in Iraq.
The Assistant Defence Minister Stuart Robert says it is all the Government can afford.
“No time is a good time to bring these things down,” he told SBS News.
“Unfortunately when $25 billion is taken out by the previous government this is what we're left with.”
The Prime Minister Tony Abbott has also defended the deal, saying he wants to do the right thing by members of Australia’s armed forces.
“Any member of the armed forces who is deployed to a combat zone will receive very significant allowances on top of his or her pay,” he told reporters in Sydney.
“All that will continue.”
Mr Abbott says, like all commonwealth departments, Defence has been caught up in the Government’s plans to return to budget surplus.
“At the moment, we are simply borrowing money to pay people. That is why it is important that we have very significant pay restraint.”
Labor Leader Bill Shorten says the Abbott Government is trying to cut the real wages of ADF members and take away their compensatory Christmas and Recreation Leave.
“The Abbott Government should respect our ADF personnel and offer a better deal, especially at a time when so many are deployed overseas away from their families.”
Stuart Robert says the offer is all the government can afford right now.
“Bill Shorten was part of that ravaging of the budget and now he's saying I'm not paying our soldiers enough. Well Bill, be constructive, get involved in being constructive in the senate, give us the funds to hopefully do a better job.
In opposition in September 2011, Mr Robert, a former Army Captain, declared it would be “outrageous” to make a pay offer to ADF personnel less than rate of inflation.
But the Assistant Defence Minister says times have changed.
“Considering how much money the government had at the time, yes I did make that point. But since then we've lost $25b - that's the difference between 2011 and now.”
“Unfortunately the brutal reality is Labor has pillaged the budget, the tin is bare and we are where we are.”
The Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal is expected to make a decision on the pay offer before November the 7th.
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