North Queensland soldier left waiting over 18 months to receive thousands owed to him

Hundreds of Aussie soldiers are at risk of leaving the army over an escalating pay debacle, with one North Queenslander revealing he’s waited 18 months to receive more than $6000 in owed pay.

Hundreds of Aussie soldiers are at risk of leaving the army over an escalating pay debacle, with one North Queenslander revealing he’s waited 18 months to receive more than $6000 in owed pay.

North Queensland soldier, Simon* is among the scores of active or former servicemen and women who have not received their entitled pay from operations, deployments, promotions or positional changes.

He says he moved to a new position in late 2022 which should have come with a pay increase but after waiting a number of weeks he noticed it hadn’t updated.

“Every couple of weeks or so I’d bring it up saying ‘hey I haven’t received this’ and at the time there were a bunch of us that weren’t getting paid,” Simon said.

It wasn’t until three months ago that Simon’s pay reflected his new position, but now he is waiting to be backpaid more than $6000 that he is owed for over a year of work he completed on the incorrect pay.

Members of the Australian Defence Force have come forward about not receiving their entitled pay from operations, deployments, promotions and position changes Picture: Alix Sweeney

“For 12 months I followed the rules. I went up the chain of command, I didn’t go over anybody’s head, I kept it within my unit and I tried to keep it as small as a problem as possible,” he said.

“After 12 months, absolutely nothing has been fixed, I wasn’t even getting closer to getting it fixed. I wasn’t given any information and no information was being passed down to me.”

As the ADF faces a retention issue, Simon said that this process would have a negative impact on his decision to continue his military career.

“It’s definitely a problem Defence wide that needs to be addressed. If it was any other corporation or any other job people would either not come into work, or sue the company,” he said.

“The lack of people giving a s*** really is the reason why a lot of people discharge and are discouraged from serving their country, because it doesn’t seem like the (ADF) seem to give a s*** about anyone.”

“We are doing the country a favour by putting ourselves at risk for things and we can’t even get money for it.”

“Who wants to stay in a job where they have to fight and give an arm and a leg just to get the right amount of pay?”

North Queensland soldier Simon* has waited 18 months to receive his back pay after he should’ve received a pay rise

A Defence spokesman said that administrative processes can cause delays in processing a salary increase.

“When ADF personnel are internally posted to a different position in order to utilise advanced skills gained while employed, they are entitled to an increase in salary,” he said.

“When there is a delay, back payment occurs to ensure personnel are paid accurately.”

“Where errors in entitlements are identified, Defence undertakes remediation activities quickly to correct the entitlements.”

Federal member for Herbert and Townsville veteran Phillip Thompson said this national issue has caused Defence personnel from around the country to get in contact with him with a goal of finally receiving the money owed to them.

“If you owe the Australian Defence Force $1 and you didn’t pay it back within a very short time frame you would be in significant trouble. You’d be potentially charged and in some cases you could find yourself doing jail time,” Mr Thompson said.

“So to have the bureaucracy out of Canberra stuff people around and not pay them correctly when they are committing themselves to the Australian Defence Force, I think is absolutely atrocious.”

“Eighteen months that soldier has waited, that’s not good enough and heads should roll because of it.”

Herbert MP Phillip Thompson is advocating for Defence personnel to receive their entitled pay after soldiers from around Australia have spoken up via social media. Picture: Shae Beplate.

A Defence spokesman said that “if personnel notice a discrepancy in pay, Defence encourages those affected to raise the issue with their chain of command to ensure it is rectified” but Mr Thompson said that even with the full support from soldiers’ chain of command, issues were still too slow to be rectified.

“This young soldier’s unit has been fantastic, his chain of command is doing everything they can to help but the handbrake, the stopping point, the boulder in the road is the Canberra bureaucracy who look out and go ‘it’s a young digger they can wait’.”

“To have the feeling around the brigade and the country with our enlisted members thinking ‘oh well they don’t care if I’m just a young soldier or young sailor or a young aviator’ means that these people will most likely look to discharge.”

The former first battalion soldier said that social media has played a crucial role in bringing this issue to light.

“Without the social media presence, sometimes we wouldn’t be made aware of it … I think it's a good thing to have the social media presence where people are talking about it and tagging each other and discussions happen” Mr Thompson said.

“You shouldn’t have to resolve these issues in the media but this is what we have to do to get the Department of Defence to do their job.”

*Names have been changed to protect the soldier’s identity

Originally published as North Queensland soldier left waiting over 18 months to receive thousands owed to him