Publication:Sea Talk Winter 2008/Defence families of Australia News
2008 DFA Annual Conference
Our annual conference this year will be held in June. DFA national delegates from around Australia travel to Canberra to represent your views and experiences of being a Naval family. The theme of our conference, Moving the Modern ADF Family, is to highlight the issues surrounding the uniqueness of our mobile Defence lifestyle. Moving the modern ADF family encompasses housing, removals, education and employment changes and the challenges faced being away from the support of family and friends.
Delegates recently held preconference meetings in many regions around Australia which gave some of you the opportunity to share your experiences on moving. The DCO Community House Review was also discussed. If you missed those meetings you can still contact your national delegate to discuss any concerns, issues or ideas you may have. We will be meeting with the Minister, the Chief of Defence Force and many senior Defence officials over the week of conference to discuss issues from each region.
We also have a link on each posting location on our website to the DCO Community House Review online survey. It only takes about 5-10 minutes to fill in and the information gathered may help to improve community houses for Defence families.
Great change to Defence Policy
As mentioned by CDRE Letts in the last edition of SeaTalk, the amended entitlement to reunion travel for MWD and MWD(U) members posted to a seagoing ship is fantastic. DFA applauds Navy for the flexibility to enable families to see each other when along side, regardless of the port the ship is in.
DFA website update
Your experiences as a Navy family and living in your current posting location would be greatly appreciated for inclusion in our website. Can you pass on some ‘lessons learnt’ to families who are going to be posted to your area? Is there something that ‘if only I had known that’ which would help other ADF families? Please email communications@dfa.org.au .
How can you be involved in DFA?
We would love to hear from you. In order to truly represent all ADF families we need to hear your views and experiences, both good and bad on policies which impact on you. For example, DFA is currently providing feedback to Defence on the members with dependents (unaccompanied) (MWD(U)) policy. DFA would like Defence to include a third location option so that families can move closer to their network of support when choosing not to accompany the member to a new posting. You can leave feedback on this and other policies on our website or you can contact your local national delegate (details are on our website) - www.dfa.org.au.
As always, I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Nicole Quinn
Nicole Quinn
National Convenor
Defence Families of Australia
