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Payne, Conroy agree on uniform review

The defence minister and shadow defence minister say there should be a review of the defence ban on how candidates use images of themselves in uniform.

File image of Australian Minister for Defence Marise Payne
File image of Australian Minister for Defence Marise Payne Source: AAP

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Source: AAP


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Away from the heat of the election campaign, there will likely be a review of the vexed issue of just how candidates can showcase their past military service.

So far this campaign, both Labor and coalition MPs and candidates have fallen foul of Defence's prohibition on using images of themselves in uniform in election material.

Both Defence Minister Marise Payne and shadow defence minister Stephen Conroy agreed this should be reviewed after the July 2 election.

Senator Payne said some half dozen MPs and candidates from both major parties were affected by the Defence prohibition.

The highest profile was West Australian Liberal Andrew Hastie, a former member of the Special Air Service Regiment, who was discharged from the stand-by reserve after he refused to take down campaign billboard showing himself in uniform.

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Brisbane Labor candidate Pat O'Neill, a former soldier, agreed to take down similar billboards.

Senator Payne said this was policy administered by the army, not the government, and its aim of avoiding politicisation was totally understandable.

But 2016, with the widespread use of social media, was a different time to 1972 when then prime minister John Gorton and opposition leader Gough Whitlam showcased their WWII RAAF service.

"So maybe we need to review this process entirely and that is something that is possible to consider, outside the fraught nature of an election environment," she told the National Press Club.

Senator Conroy said non-politicisation of the defence force was a crucial principle.

He said both sides had candidates who are very proud of their backgrounds and a review after the election would be appropriate.

"We have a new world in the way social media works. It's very important to have that discussion afterwards when there's no finger-pointing," he responded.


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