DEFENCE MEDIA RELEASE
Issued by Ministerial Support and Public Affairs, Department of Defence, Canberra, ACT
Phone: 02 6127 1999, Fax: 02 6265 1545
MSPA 448/09
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
CORRECTING THE RECORD - ADF RESERVES AND
MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS WA
The Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie AO DSC CSM, today corrected the
record in order to clarify some misleading information in recent media reporting
regarding Australian Defence Force (ADF) reserves.
“Recent media reports and correspondence from interest groups have focused on
perceived reductions to ADF Reserve training days. This perception is not accurate,”
Lieutenant General Gillespie said.
“The number of days paraded on an annual basis by Reservists has risen steadily. The
expenditure associated with this increase has, until this financial year, been
accommodated within the flexibility afforded by the overall military workforce budget.
“This may have led to a perception the availability of Army Reserve Training Salaries
was less constrained by budget pressure, which is not true.
“Further to this, $9.6 million of Defence supplementation has covered the increased costs
caused by the new Graded Pay Scales. As a result of this funding boost, no reduction in
the number of days paraded will be necessary to offset the new Graded Pay Scales.
“Comments regarding Reserve ammunition allocation being cutback for this financial
year are also untrue. In order to ensure forces are prepared for operations and
deployments all types of ammunition are managed in accordance with unit priorities to
ensure that ammunition is allocated in line with operational priorities.”
Lieutenant General Gillespie said the highest priority tasking for the Reserve continues to
be for them to provide support to, prepare for, and deploy on operations.
“Training and preparation for these will be funded first. Army is carefully managing its
training days budget to ensure capability is delivered in the highest priority areas within
the funding available.
“Reservists are performing magnificently on operations because of the strong training
conducted. Army will continue working hard to support these initiatives, but must
operate within priorities and budget constraints.”
With regards to the security works, no recent security works contracts have been issued
for fencing, and no contracts have been issued for razor wire at HMAS Stirling in the last
3 years.
Routine maintenance, such as guttering, is scheduled and coordinated into batches to
achieve greater economies of scale when conducting maintenance.
Defence is not aware of any reports of water damage to the facility at this time.
Media contact: Defence Media Liaison: (02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664
NEWS 
