Cassidy, Laureen (SEN)
From:	Bell & Ben-Avi [linkezev@caliph.net.au]
Sent:	Monday, 30 April 2001 10:56 PM
To:	fadt.sen@aph.gov.au
Cc:	tpivets@tpivets.com; fences@one.net.au; pronto@rocknet.net.au; Graham.Edwards.MP@aph.gov.au; Kim.Beazley.MP@aph.gov.au; Senator.Bartlett@aph.gov.au; margra@hypermax.net.au; cjs@norex.com.au; badbazvvmc@bigpond.com.au; ngreen@iinet.net.au; jpritc@ozemail.com.au; olney@gil.com.au; rossn@dingoblue.net.au; stemps@austarnet.com.au; blueryan@dingoblue.net.au; vvmc_eureka_mob@optusnet.com.au; elrancho@qldwide.net.au; Bruce.Scott.MP@aph.gov.au; sweetwords@ozemail.com.au
Subject:	Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee Inquiry Into Recruitment and Retention of ADF Personnel
Zev Ben-Avi
Advocate
Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club
4 Brooker St
Woodford  QLD  4514
07 5496 3444
linkezev@caliph.net.au <mailto:linkezev@caliph.net.au>
 
   I would like to make a submission to the above Inquiry with regards to Recruitment and Retention in the ADF.  My background is -
15 years Australian Regular Army, followed by nearly 17 years as an Advocate, representing veterans in the process of their claims with - Dept. of Veterans Affairs; Repatriation Commission; Veterans' Review Board; Administrative Appeals Tribunal.  I have been a founder member of the Vietnam Veterans Action Association (VVAA, since 1983 the Vietnam Veterans Association of Aust.) as the
inaugural Vice Pres. of the first branch; a founder member of the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club (VVMC); an Advocate with the Totally and Permanently Disabled Soldiers Association (Qld); and an Advocate with the Incapacitated Servicemens and Womens Association (Qld).
 
   Quote - "THE WILLINGNESS WITH WHICH OUR YOUNG PEOPLE ARE LIKELY TO SERVE IN ANY WAR, NO MATTER HOW JUSTIFIED, SHALL BE DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL AS TO HOW THEY PERCEIVE THE VETERANS OF EARLIER WARS WERE TREATED AND APPRECIATED BY THEIR NATION."  - George Washington
 
   I would like to present my submission under the Terms of Reference at (2) (f) - any other issues, reasonably relevant to the terms of reference but not referred to above, which arise in the course of the inquiry.
   All of the previous Terms of Reference are, in my opinion, simply effects.  I would like to deal with the deeper issue of causes.  Australian history since Federation has shown several instances of Armed Services personnel being shabbily treated.  Let me give some examples.  In February 1902, Harry "Breaker" Morant, Peter Handcock and George Witton - all Lieutenants in the Bushveldt Carbineers, were tried by a British military courts martial and Morant and Handcock were sentenced to death by firing squad, Witton being sentenced to imprisonment (later curtailed).  The newly federated states of the Commonwealth of Australia did absolutely nothing to assist these soldiers who did a very distasteful job, that couldn't be done by conventional units, under orders and the government of this country allowed them to be executed by another country.
   After the Great War (WW 1), veterans had to fight to get a disibility pension (compensation) system and a Repriation Department to look after their needs.
   After World War two, PoW's of the Japanese were promised "reparations" to compensate for their hardship and slave labour.  They were offered 106 pounds ($212) and those who accepted (in instalments) were told that that was it.  The Japanese government in 1952 signed a "treaty" absolving themselves of further payments.  Since that time other governments have pursued the Japanese government and have succeeded in getting $US 30,000 for their PoW's as promised.  Australian PoW's have just been promised $A 25,000 from our government, bearing in mind that they are now all over 80 and that there are only just over 2,000 of the original 22,000 survivors left.  Widows of PoW's will get nothing unlike their USA, Canadian, NZ, UK and Dutch peers.
   Veterans of Korea have always been known as the "forgotten" veterans.  Few Australians know of our involvement in the Malaya Emergency or of Confrontation with Indonesia in Malaysia.  Even John Howard has stated that when we were about to send troops to East Timor, they should not be treated as shamefully as our Vietnam veterans were some 30 years earlier.
   Vietnam !  Agent Orange was "harmless".  The propaganda of the obligation to the SEATO Treaty, the "Red Peril", the "Yellow Plague", the "Domino Theory", the secret night time return of troops to Sydney to avoid clashes with protesters, the red paint thrown at troops, the denial and obfuscation when the Agent Orange issue was raised, the RSL telling us that we were "malingerers" and habitues of Saigon bar girls and not poisoned by toxic sprays - stated publicly by the Nat. Pres. Sir William Keys, the refusal of either an Inquiry or a Royal Commission, the eventual Royal Commission that declared -"Agent Orange Not Guilty", the Welcome Home march that Vietnam veterans organised (I thought that welcomes like apologies were given, not taken),  the "Trial by Ordeal" that veterans have to go through to get into the Veterans' Affairs compensation (not pension as they keep insisting) system, ad infinitum.
   Let me tell you of one of my mates whose case I did.  Alex was a deferred National Serviceman, due to his studies at university.  He failed one exam in his final third year (architecture), lost his deferrment and went into the Army immediately.  A good placement for an almost architect would have been in construction engineers, but Alex was sent to be a tracker dog handler in Infantry.  On one operation the Doggies left the dogs behind and were used as a conventional Infantry Platoon.  They were hit by a mine triggered ambush, followed up by small arms fire.  The Platoon Commander, Platoon Sergeant and two Section Corporals were wounded.  Seventeen members of the platoon were wounded, four later dying of wounds.  Alex took over and organised an all round defensive perimeter, organised the able bodied wounded to chop down trees to get the evacuation chopper in , radioed for Cavalry to support them, patched up the wounded, was the last of the wounded to be evacuated and all under fire.  All of this with his left arm tied in a tourniquet below the elbow with a shirt sleeve due to the loss of that arm.  He was peppered with shrapnel up his left side and still sets off alarms as most of it is still there.  He went through no shock as he is a tough nut and still is.
   That night after 1 Aust Field Hosp had stabilised him, a Colonel and a Chaplain visited his parents, who are Siberian Russians.  They told his mum and dad that he had been killed in action.  His mum had a nervous breakdown and his dad had a stroke.  Two days later the army organised an international phone call for him to talk to his parents, he got his mum.  She was convinced that it was a hoax call about which she had heard of where NOK were called and told that it was best that their son/father/brother/husband was killed/wounded as they were baby killers/village burners anyway.  Alex didn't know that he was dead and was confused as to why his mum didn't acknowledge him, he changed from English to Russian and she had another nervous breakdown due to having had a phone call from the grave !
   Eventually the army sorted out the problem and his parents were told that he wasn't dead, just missing an arm and full of metal and deaf.  He came home two weeks later and was greeted by his emotional Russian family, his wife (due to deferrment he was married with one child at age 23/24) stated that she wanted a man who could put two arms around her.  Alex was admitted to 1 Mil Hosp at Yeronga.  He had been recommended for a DCM but this was downgraded as there was a "quota" system on decorations and the quota was up.  The DCM was downgraded to an MM but the quota was up again, then downgraded to MID (Mentioned in Despatches), the bottom award for bravery.  His medals were posted to him whilst a patient at 1 Mil Hosp and there was never any presentation, despite being in a military hospital.  His MID certificate, which is parchment quality was folded into 6 and was posted with his unmounted medals, he didn't know which medal went on which ribbon, which order right to left or which was back or front.
   Alex's "rehabilitation" consisted of a 10 minute lesson after his stump healed in how to operate a prosthetic arm.  He was told to practice a lot and discharged as medically unfit.  Nobody told him his entitlements or eligibility.  He thought that his DFRDB medical discharge pension was a Service Pension.  His Disibility Pension from Reptriation (now Dept. Vet. Aff.) was 85% and he thought that with two legs, two eyes, his private parts operable and one and a half arms, that 85% must be very good.  Nobody told him that 100% of the General Rate was NOT the maximum.  Welcome home soldier !!!!!!!!!!!!
   He was asked on discharge what he had been doing before call up.  He told them and was advised to go back to university and see if he could restart third year.  No letters of introduction, nothing.  He went back to uni and with an inch of hair and a prosthesis it was obvious where he had been.  He was asked how many babies had he killed, villages had he burned, and he flew off the handle and decked about thirty people in the first few weeks.  The university chucked him out.  He got work as a site draftsman and decked a few more people.  He reached the conclusion that if he was socially unacceptable then he might as well go all the way.
   Alex had always had motorcycles.  He got a Honda 750, 4 cyclinder, fitted a turbo to it - before this was common, fitted throttle, clutch, brake and switchgear to the right bar, hung on to the left bar with his hook and was a founder of an outlaw motorcycle club.  Of the original 32 founders of that club, today only 4 of them are still alive.  It was a case of - If you are not living life on the edge then you are taking up too much space.  Alex had so little self esteem that he really didn't care, despite the fact that he really is an intelligent and warm human being.  Alex is very proud of the fact that he doesn't lie or steal and never has.  Alex has an extensive criminal record, mainly from bashing cops, he has never stolen and couldn't lie to save himself.
   I met him in 1984 when he was charged with bashing a noisy neighbor who kept his Grandmother awake until 2 each morning.  He bashed this man and then rammed a stick of gelignite up his rectum whilst he was unconscious.  He woke him with a bucket of water and threatened to use a detonator if he kept up the noise.  The cops arrived and took him away, searching his Gran's place, finding several pistols, sawn off shotties, sub-machine guns and knives hidden under his cage of snakes.  He got a provisional sentence of two years pending a psychiatric report which I organised.  This was when PTSD was first starting to be diagnosed.
   The psychiatrist wrote an extensive report which summarised that he suffered from PTSD as a result of his service in Vietnam, his massive wounds and the reception he got on return.  He gave his IQ at 125 and stated that he was also one of the sanest men he had ever met.  The court dropped his sentence to 6 months and told to never front again or they would throw away the key.  Alex went bush to a 40 acre block of rubbish land at the end of a dead end road and became a hermit, raising pigs who he said were better than people.
   I lost track of him when he went bush.  He turned up in late 1990 when we formed the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club.  In 1991 the VVMC marched as a contingent at the Brisbane Anzac Day march.  Of those 28 ugly, hairy bikie veterans, 14 had never had anything to do with anything ex-service or marches.  I was worried about Alex as two of the symptoms of PTSD - fear of crowds and confined spaces were about to be tested by marching these mostly hermits down a crowd of cheering people !  On the day before, Alex showed me a packet, which is what medals were posted in.  He had only ever opened it twice before.  They were still unmounted.  I stitched them up for him and noticed his MID certificate which I didn't know about.  I had to sew on the bronze leaf to the ribbon as he didn't know where it went or which way around it faced.
   Alex has a completely tattooed torso, is missing half of one ear and his prosthesis is issued by DVA in pink fibreglass and stainless steel.  He paints it all black except for where he drills holes in the fibreglass to place dog collar stud rivets - about 50 or so, a vicious looking device.  Alex seldom wears a shirt, just his black bike vest.  Despite the fearsome image, Alex bawled his eyes out during the march.  That cheering crowd was a million dollars worth of therapy that cannot be bought.
   Since 1990 and the VVMC, Alex has not even had a parking ticket.  I took his case when I learnt that he was unaware of the TPI Rate (Totally and Permanently Incapacitated) or the Service Pension.  He thought that 85% Disibility was as good as he was ever going to get as it was near 100%.  Nobody told him that TPI was about 4 times more than 85%.  By the system not telling him his entitlements, he had been robbed (at 1992 rates) of $330 per week since 1976 !  I took his case up to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and we got him 5 years worth of back money plus full TPI and Service Pension.
   Now tell me that this country looks after it's veterans.  I have had plenty of cases as a Advocate where the "trial by ordeal" is the norm.  All of these cases are documented.
   Superannuation contributions by employers currently have 5 levels.  The least is 8% (9% next year), 13% in the Public sector, 17% for academics, 23% for those in the Commonwealth Super scheme and 69% paid by employers (the taxpayer), SIXTY NINE % for
politicians.
   Compare that to the DFRDB scheme as it used to be until recently for ADF personnel.  After 20 years service, a small lump sum and 35% (rising with more service) of retiring salary as a pension.  For those with less than 20 years service you get back on discharge - Your own money with NOTHING put in by the employer (the government), no interest and a 1% accounting fee for having "looked after" your money.  In my case I got out after 15 years due to the politics of having been a founder of the VVAA over the Agent Orange issue.  I lost rank due to my "radical' involvement in the Agent Orange case and was discharged as a Sergeant.  I got a miserable $9,200 lump sum with NO pension and told to F..K OFF !
   The present Minister for Employment Services, Mal Brough, did 12 years service, getting out as a Captain and got only $15,000 and this was only about  less than 10 years ago !
   Cause and effect.  The Terms of Reference for your Inquiry are mostly about effect.  The CAUSE is long standing and  will be difficult to cure.  Young diggers - male and female are aware of how previous generations were treated, there is your CAUSE.
   Quote -
   THE WILLINGNESS WITH WHICH OUR YOUNG PEOPLE ARE LIKELY TO SERVE IN ANY WAR, NO MATTER HOW JUSTIFIED, SHALL BE DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL AS TO HOW THEY PERCEIVE THE VETERANS OF EARLIER WARS WERE TREATED AND APPRECIATED BY THEIR NATION."
 
   Zev Ben-Avi
 
For the attention of Senator John Hogg, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee.