Defence Minister denies claim that NSW has received more ADF help than Victoria

Australia’s Federal Defence Minister has hit back at Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley’s claim that the ADF is providing more assistance to NSW than Victoria.

At a press conference on Sunday, Mr Foley said “I do draw the distinction between the high levels of assistance that the ADF is providing in Sydney as opposed to the somewhat lower levels of assistance they’re providing here in Melbourne”.

Federal Defence Minister Linda Reynolds says that’s untrue, and NSW is “absolutely not” getting a better deal.

“14,000 ADF personnel have assisted all states and territories over the past 12 months,” she told Neil Mitchell.

“3300 of those have actually supported Victoria.”

Ms Reynolds says there are currently 266 ADF personnel assisting in Victoria’s COVID-19 response, with 202 of them working in 12 quarantine hotels.

That figure will rise to 430 personnel to support 22 quarantine hotels.

Meanwhile, there are currently 216 ADF personnel assisting in the quarantine effort in New South Wales.

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