Senator Bob Carr: The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to honourable senator’s question: As an agency under the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997, personnel in the Department of Defence do not earn ‘frequent flyer’ points when using airlines appointed to the Whole-of-Australian Government (WoAG) air services panel. Under this arrangement the Department of Finance and Deregulation (the contract manager) instructed airlines contracted to supply both domestic and international air travel to switch off their Frequent Flyer Points/Loyalty Reward Points from 1 July 2010. Where an airline was unable to meet the system change, travel management companies were requested to switch off points from their booking systems until affected airlines had a solution in place. Frequent Flyer Points/Loyalty Reward Points may be accrued from airlines outside WoAG arrangements as there is no obligation by these airlines to turn off points. Defence has no way of tracking if points are accrued from official duty travel; however Defence personnel are required to comply with government policy and only use points accrued from official duty travel for future duty travel.