Only guessing, but I think there would be an R&Q allowance refund, and probably field allowance, the same as any exercise. Field allowance probably named something else, like sea.allowance?
Where were you expecting to be sent, if you don’t mind me asking?
The ADF has a number of ‘ready’ elements, which are prepared to react to any sort of contingency. The main army ready element is the ready battle group, which is based on an infantry battalion (it’s currently 8/9 RAR). A subset of the ready battle group is the ready combat team, which is based on a rifle company, and has the shortest notice to move of any conventional ready element (the exact notice to move is sensitive, obviously).
How is that any different to any other part of the ADF being on a notice to move? There are thousands of people sitting on their packs waiting for something to happen, getting paid nothing extra. Allusions to disaster response aren’t going to help. Every brigade maintains a response force and emergency support force throughout the year, ready to respond to disaster. They can’t go home at Christmas either, and get paid nothing extra.
I’ve got no issue with seagoing allowance when people are actually at sea, only getting it when ashore. It is indefensible that a sailor posted to a ship in refit gets seagoing allowance. The justification given to the DFRT was that working in a ship in refit is very hard, and therefore they should get it too, which is a strange justification considering that lots of jobs are hard, but they dont come with their own disability allowance.
I've done almost 11 years sea time and in that time some of the longest and hardest hours I've worked has been with the ship in Refit. Yes its a break for some but for key personnel of Engineering Departments its a relief to be back underway at sea only having to work 8 hours engine room watch keeping plus 2-4 hours departmental work on top of that per day.
I get that. My point isn’t that sailors posted to a ship in refit don’t work hard, it’s that the maratime disability allowance is to compensate people for the unique rigours of service at sea; it’s hard to justify that people ashore are subject to the rigours of service at sea. Lots and lots of people work hard on shore, but get paid not a single extra cent for doing so. It’s hard to justify that a ships crew should get an allowance for working hard ashore when no one else, from any service, does.
Yeh, I would be interested in how knowledgable members feel about how realistic they think that is.
The ANZACs are all going through a series of modernisations so that should keep them current for the next 10-15 years. Unless there is a major fubar in the build, nuship Hunter should be commissioned and worked up by the time HMAS Anzac is decommissioned and paid off. The three DDG will take some of the pressure off the ANZAC FFG fleet because they are modern and new. Once Hunter is launched and the build problems found and solved, nuship 2 will be quicker and so on, so that by the time nuship 5 is launched the build and fitting out times will be optimal. That's how I see it. I wouldn't get to hung up on the pommy build because how the poms do things, politically and bureaucratically, and how things are done in Australia are different with Australia having greater stability in the defence realm. There is significant political instability in Pomland at the moment and that has potential for negative impacts upon the T26 build there and other pom defence programs.
In what conditions are they sitting on their packs ? What is their rooms like ? facilities ? shower blocks ? what duty roster do they work ? when they are not actively out "in the field" what are they doing ?
What was that book Dickens wrote?.... "Great Expectations."
