Fed: Air force families may need compensation, inquiry told

AAP General News (Australia)
04-10-2001
Fed: Air force families may need compensation, inquiry told

By Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, April 10 AAP - Spouses and children of RAAF maintenance workers with health
problems may need to be compensated, an inquiry was told today.

Giving evidence at the F-111 Deseal/Reseal Board of Inquiry in Brisbane, Regular Defence
Force Welfare Association national vice-president Kerry Mellor said compensation was wider
than the health and disability of the RAAF workers themselves.

"Specifically the health of wives may have been affected by their husbands' health
and children too may have congenital defects attributable to their fathers' health," Mr
Mellor said.

"There is a precedent in respect of Vietnam veterans where certain psychological disorders
and conditions such as cleft lip/palate and spina bifida, are recognised by government
as attributable to their father's service.

"We would like the board to take the widest possible view."

Mr Mellor said the inquiry's focus bore some similarity to a 1980s case of former Navy
Skyhawk maintainers who sought compensation for leukaemia, blood disorders and other illnesses
they attributed to paints and solvents.

Three widows of sailors who died of leukaemia were among those eventually compensated.

Mr Mellor, whose address was applauded by the inquiry's public gallery, said maintenance
workers who had given evidence to the inquiry faced a fragmented defence force compensation
system which needed a comprehensive overhaul.

The federal government should pass new military rehabilitation and compensation laws,
which have been released in draft form, and ensure RAAF personnel who quit in order to
work for companies taking on defence contracts have compensation coverage at least equal
to their entitlements as defence personnel, he said.

He said his association would be following up the cases of individual maintenance workers
who came before the inquiry to examine whether it had wider implications for other areas
of the defence force.

The inquiry, which is holding its final day of public hearings today, was called last
July to investigate health problems relating to the F-111 maintenance process known as
deseal/reseal at RAAF Amberley air base, west of Brisbane.

Early last year former maintenance crew members reported memory loss and other health
complaints after working inside and around F-111 fuel tanks.

The maintenance process has since been suspended pending the outcome of the inquiry
and a major health investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

AAP pjo/sc/gmw/br

KEYWORD: F111 (CARRIED EARLIER) (PIX EXPECTED)

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