Defence pay deal will hurt the Federal Government’s reputation and support

OPINION: The Abbott Government has picked a wages fight with the military it will not win. Instead it will only end up backfiring, big time.

PM Tony Abbott in Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber, Parliament House in Canberra.

OPINION

The Abbott government has picked a wages fight with the military it will not win.

The paltry 1.5 per cent pay rise for soldiers, sailors and aviators will be used to prosecute what will be depicted as Abbott meanness.

The decision might go ahead, but the Government’s pretensions to fairness and consistency will be damaged in its wake.

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Military personnel of course can’t go on strike. That would be mutiny. But there will be plenty outside the base ready to agitate on their behalf. And the pressure will be on the Government to explain why it picked this period to slice their wages.

Over the past few decades the Coalition — in power and in Opposition — has insisted Defence be quarantined from spending cuts hitting the remainder of the public sector.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Government is facing heat over the Defence pay deal.

The argument, often bipartisan, has been national security was too important to be included in generic Budget slashing, and that Defence cannot find productivity gains as readily as other departments to offset funding reductions.

Now, however, the Coalition is not only including the military in its spending restrictions, it is using it as a public sector bellwether.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made clear that what’s happening to soldiers’ pay packets will be the norm for the other public employees.

And that 1.5 per cent will quickly appear to be a low blow to military personnel. The Reserve Bank forecasts for June next year put inflation at between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent; and for June 2016 between 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.

The buying power of the military pay packet will shrink over that period and all Defence families with feel the squeeze.

More broadly, some 60,000 Defence members will not be spending as much as they might like, and the general economy will suffer. It will be tough for MPs in military towns to defend this wage decision to serving personnel and local shop keepers.

There are concerns that local economies in military towns, such as Townsville which has a RAAF base, will be affected by the shrinking pay packets of Defence personnel.

The Government will blame Labor for draining the Defence allocation to the extent there was no option but for fighting men and women and their families to suffer until the shortfall is made up.

That argument might be true, but it certainly makes for awkward situations when the Government can find cash for other projects. A question might emerge: If there’s dough for other recipients, why not for the Diggers?

The Government will also point out the decision was made by an independent tribunal as if this might divert the blame. However, it was its own preferred outcome.

The Government is determined to go through with the strangling of Defence pay packets but this will cost it support which could take years to regain, and longer to regret.

Originally published as Defence pay deal will hurt the Federal Government’s reputation and support