Australien — New national delegates for Defence Families of Australia

The Min­is­ter for Vet­er­ans’ Affairs and Min­is­ter for Defence Per­son­nel, Alan Grif­fin, last night con­grat­u­lat­ed the new nation­al del­e­gates of Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia.
The six new nation­al del­e­gates are: 

Annaliese McCam­mon – Nation­al Pol­i­cy Offi­cer;
Ami­ta Tan­dukar – Nation­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer;
Keron Wise – Nation­al Del­e­gate for the Aus­tralian Cap­i­tal Ter­ri­to­ry and South­ern­New South Wales;
Dan­nii Khan – Nation­al Del­e­gate for North Queens­land
Jil­lian Macey – Nation­al Del­e­gate for South Queens­land; and
Mar­i­on Dono­hue – Nation­al Del­e­gate for the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry and Kimberley.

Mr Grif­fin pre­sent­ed the cer­tifi­cates of appoint­ment at the Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia Nation­al Con­fer­ence din­ner at the Roy­al Mil­i­tary Col­lege, Duntroon. 

Mr Grif­fin con­grat­u­lat­ed the del­e­gates on their appoint­ment and acknowl­edged the impor­tant role the vol­un­teers of Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia play in rep­re­sent­ing the views of Defence families. 

“The Gov­ern­ment great­ly val­ues the views and con­tri­bu­tions of Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia mem­bers. Their input is heard and their opin­ions are val­ued,” Mr Grif­fin said. 

“Through Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia, Defence gets a clear pic­ture of the issues affect­ing the fam­i­lies of our serv­ing per­son­nel and pos­si­ble options for resolv­ing these issues. 

“Con­sul­ta­tive groups such as Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia are essen­tial in ensur­ing Defence has a broad range of infor­ma­tion avail­able when mak­ing pol­i­cy decisions. 

“The nature of work under­tak­en by Aus­tralian Defence Force per­son­nel can present chal­lenges to both the serv­ing mem­ber and their fam­i­ly and it is impor­tant that Defence works to pro­vide the nec­es­sary sup­port and assis­tance to mem­bers and their fam­i­lies,” Mr Grif­fin said. 

The din­ner marked the end of a week-long nation­al con­fer­ence, dur­ing which Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia del­e­gates met with Defence rep­re­sen­ta­tives to share infor­ma­tion about mat­ters affect­ing families. 

In August, Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia will release a com­pre­hen­sive pol­i­cy paper out­lin­ing the key issues dis­cussed and rec­om­men­da­tions for new ini­tia­tives to be imple­ment­ed in the com­ing year. The paper will be released on the Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia website. 

Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia is an inde­pen­dent, vol­un­teer-based organ­i­sa­tion formed in 1986 to offi­cial­ly rep­re­sent the views of Aus­tralian Defence Force fam­i­lies to the Gov­ern­ment and Defence’s senior lead­er­ship group. 

For more infor­ma­tion about Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia, vis­it: www.dfa.org.au

Media Con­tacts: Sasha Nim­mo (Alan Grif­fin): 0437 863 109 Julie Black­burn (Defence Fam­i­lies of Aus­tralia): 0410 626 103 Defence Media Liai­son: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia