The Australian:
"THE army's first female commando yesterday won a High Court victory
over the military's compensation scheme that could benefit thousands of
defence personnel.
Lieutenant Colonel Robyn Fellowes, 40, had been denied a payout for an
injury to her right knee because she had already been compensated for a
'lower limb' injury - to her left knee.
The 4-1 judgment found the Comcare guide to impairment was unfair
because 'her two separate injuries led to two separate losses of use of, or
damage to, two separate parts of her body'.
Lieutenant Colonel Fellowes, who now runs a fitness business in Brisbane
and is still in the Army Reserve, enlisted in 1986 and served in Bougainville,
East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.
'I've loved my time in the army but the rigorous physical work we are
required to do does impact on the body,' she said yesterday.
Her lawyer, Ben Mason, of Slater and Gordon, said 'the second injury was
simply ignored' and he suspected that up to 5000 people were in the same
position.
'It has been a cheap way to treat our defence personnel, who carry these
injuries for the rest of their lives, affecting their work, recreation and family
life,' Mr Mason said.
Lieutenant Colonel Fellowes' appeals to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
and the Full Federal Court failed but the High Court said she should have
been assessed on the effect the injury had 'on the functional capacity of a normal
healthy person'."
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