FEDERAL ELECTION 2019 – ADSO UPDATE POLICY OBJECTIVES

15 Apr 2019

ADSO Policy Objectives for the Federal Election 2019 and Beyond

We’re back and ready for action.
At Election time the Government, all Parties and Pollies are accountable to the Australian people for their past performance and we veterans individually assess the impact of their election policies on our Family and the Nation’s future prosperity. The lead up to the Election is the time when Interest Groups such as ADSO have the best opportunity to be heard and listened to and to influence the Parties’ Veterans’ policies.

The Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia’s motto “Honour the dead but fight like hell for the Living”, truly reflects Australia’s paramount national interests in relation to military service: honouring the dead by commemorating their service and caring for the well-being of veterans and their families.
The Nation’s Promise to veterans as stated by PM Billy Hughes in 1917: “We say to them – ‘You go and fight, and when you come back we will look after your welfare’ ….we have entered into a bargain with the soldier, and we must keep it!”, is a non-discretionary obligation.
That commitment, which led to the national obligation to maintain for veterans and their families care and a reasonable standard of living, has been broken in certain areas by successive Governments.

ADSO – A REMINDER
ADSO is an active representative voice for our Australian Defence Family to the Australian Parliament and the Australian people. We advocate to Governments for the well-being of our Defence Family and protection of its service entitlements. We are a non-partisan Alliance of most major ex-service organisations. We lobby the Government, its appropriate Ministers and political parties to achieve our objectives. 
Our Canberra lobby team has direct access to the DVA Minister through quarterly meetings with him and staff on topical issues and importantly we are represented by eight of ADSO’s members on DVA’s National Consultative Framework and its constituent forums (ESO Round Table (ESORT), National Aged and Community Care Forum (NACCF), Operational Working Party (OWP) and Younger Veterans — Contemporary Needs Forum (YVF). It is a formal consultative structure designed to facilitate effective communication between the veteran and ex-service community, the Repatriation and Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commissions, and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA). It gives us the opportunity to highlight DVA policy and process problems and seek remedies. Have a look at what they discuss at their quarterly meetings.
And we respond to all Government inquiries related to veterans’ issues with researched submissions and attend related public hearings and inquiries to address them.
Major submissions in the past few years have been:
• 2019 – The Productivity Commission Inquiry into DVA – ADSO Submission March 2019 and ADSO Submission July 2018.
• 2016 – Senate Inquiry into Veterans Suicides – ADSO Submission dated 7 Oct 2016; supplementary submission dated 11 Oct 2016.

ADSO intends to become an Incorporated entity this year to give it greater strength, governance and opportunities.

ADSO’s MAJOR POLICY OBJECTIVES – 2019 Election and Beyond

Download ADSO Policy Objectives PDF

 download 43They will be released by our national spokesperson Kel Ryan in Townsville tomorrow Tue 16th April 2019.

 

WE NEED YOUR HELP – HERE’S HOW
To be successful we need your support. Even though these objectives may have no benefit to you personally NOW, they do to others of our Defence Family such as the:
    • 235,000 military superannuants administered by the Government protected        Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC);
    • 110,000 MSBS members who have preserved benefits that are poorly                 indexed and not receivable until their notional retiring age and not portable         to another complying Superannuation Fund;
    • DFRDB Superannuants who commuted;
    •  Widows whose reversionary payment is unfair;
    • 27,000 TPIs whose disability payments have been severely eroded;
    • 90,000 veterans whose disability payments have been eroded, and
    • 290,000 DVA clients.
We hope that being part of our Family you will be supportive in whatever way you can.

Regardless of the election result we will be promoting our issues to all the newly elected MPs/Senators through our Advocates in Canberra and our Action Groups in the electorates by offering our support to brief them on veterans’ matters.

There is no doubt that using direct action tactics especially with social media is effective in promoting our issues. Please share our activities with your family and friends on Facebook, twitter or other social media.

download 12 If you have not yet joined us, then please  subscribe to receive our free Updates and/or volunteer to join your local electorate Action Group Team or become an Advisor. As an Advisor you can assist us with your experience and expertise in a particular Campaign policy objective, such as arketing,public relations, media, investigative journalism, superannuation, legal, health, information services and technology, accounting, financial planning, sales, etc.

Add On. If you already subscribe to receive our Updates, then please consider increasing your involvement by volunteering to join your local electorate Action Group Team or becoming an Advisor.

Stay Informed. Keep up to date with the Fair Go Campaign

Donating to Fund the Campaign
images 23We are all unpaid volunteers and are motivated by the need to protect and care for our Defence Family.
We fund our Campaign solely by donations from our supporters. If you can, please make a donation. Every donation, no matter how small, will make a big impact on our ability to get our message into the community. It will help pay for our promotions and promotional material (posters, Fact Sheet handouts etc), professional advice and administrative expenses. We are fortunate that many of our supporters provide their professional advice free. Thanks for your donation.

THANK YOU AUSTRALIA FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN PROTECTING THE PROTECTORS
UNITED WE SUCCEED, DIVIDED WE FAIL


Ted Chitham & Alf Jaugietis
Co-Directors ADSO Fair Go Campaign
15 April 2019