At the going down of the sun we will forget them

After the service, Keith invites everyone across the road to the Daylesford RSL for the traditional Gunfire Breakfast.

Inside the RSL it is warm and cosy and the aroma of lashings of scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages, tea and coffee in styrene cups, lifts the mood and conversation as we look around to see if all the darling regulars are there. Not all are. I hear someone say, it's to be expected. They can't go on forever. Their legs give in. And the cold's too much for them. And it's too emotional as they get older.

I sit down at a table with local real estate agent John Evans and Jack and Keith.

Before too long we're talking about the torrid circumstances in which some returned servicemen and women live; their dismal superannuation payouts and miserly death benefits, and of how they were brutally betrayed by the Government, Greens and Independents last June when the promised passing of the Fair Indexation Bill was voted down.

For decades there has been this misconception that our defence personnel enjoy brilliant pensions and superannuation schemes, second only to politicians.

Nothing could be further from the truth. They have been ripped off. By experts. The Australian government.

It was political treachery writ large in the handwriting of deceptive Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her lying frontline troops.

Senator Kate Lundy, even unto the 11th hour deceived the Diggers into believing she would be voting for the Bill. She did not. The Bill was defeated by one vote. Hers.

I wrote about this betrayal in Independent Australia shortly afterwards. The article has now prompted more than 2000 comments from Diggers and supporters, from rank and file alike.

The truth is, our returned service personnel have been despicably treated by successive governments, which is why the Opposition hasn't slapped this issue on the Parliamentary table.

The Vietnam War is not over for our Veterans. Now they are at war with their government. Some have died in the past year, fighting this injustice. Mates joke that the Government is behaving like James Hardie Industries in avoiding its responsibilities and duty of care and hoping that the Diggers will die out before Justice does.

All this against the backdrop of outrageous increases in parliamentary pensions, continual political scandals involving the abuse of public funds and rorting of the system, the scandals and continuing mismanagement within the Defence Force, the $4 billion slashing of the Defence budget and the opulent funds available for everyone else it seems, except the Diggers. Just the other week Australia gave $7billion to the Euro International Monetary Fund.