Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has said he was proud to be presented with a petition signed by over 60,000 Australians supporting a better pay deal for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

The petition “Don’t send our Defence Force to war on a pay cut, show our ADF the respect it deserves” was started in October by Tony Dagger, father of a current ADF member.

The petition has so far gathered 60,000 signatories and is still growing.

Today Mr Dagger joined with representatives of the Defence Force Welfare Association, veterans and family members of serving ADF members in order to present the petition to Mr Katter on the lawn outside Parliament House.

Mr Katter said he was proud to be presented with the petition and that this needed to be a message to the Australian Government that the current pay proposal on offer to ADF personnel was unacceptable to the Australian public.

“Those working in the Defence Forces face the greatest pressures to hold together marriages and families given that they spend long periods on deployment.

“The most recent figures cite 103 self-caused deaths of returned soldiers since 2001.

“Yet we have relegated the men and women who risk their lives for our country to second class citizens by this pay deal.

“Whilst the Government has today decided to reverse their earlier decision and re-instate leave entitlements this only gives back something that they had taken away, this is no win for the ADF,” Mr Katter said.

Mr Katter has requested a meeting with the Prime Minister to present the petition during the current sitting of Parliament.

Anybody still wishing to sign the petition can do so at: www.change.org/p/don-t-send-our-defence-forces-to-war-on-a-pay-cut-show-our-adf-the-respect-it-deserves

PHOTO:  Mr Katter receiving the petition from petitioner Tony Daggar with members of the Defence Force Welfare Association, veterans and serving members’ family.