Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was interesting listening to the member for Kingston's attempt to rewrite history. She would well know, because she was part of the government when it occurred, that those opposite were the ones responsible for putting in place the Centrelink debt repayment system. We have not made any changes to it; it is what those opposite put in place. But we have more important things to talk about this morning.

It is my pleasure to rise in this House to speak on the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Digital Readiness and Other Measures) Bill 2016, which seeks to significantly improve services for veterans and their families. This is an important piece of legislation. I represent an electorate that has many veterans, so my office regularly gets representations from veterans and their families and advocates for veterans on issues they are having with the system at the Department of Veterans' Affairs. This legislation is important because it is vital that we do our best to look after our veterans after all they have done to protect our country and after they have done their best to look after us.

I am privileged to represent a community that contains organisations such as the Beenleigh RSL subbranch, which runs terrific veteran support programs and services. I always enjoy dropping in on diggers day to share a beer and a laugh. You are always guaranteed to be told what they think. I am also proud to support the neighbouring RSL subbranch at Greenbank and the North Gold Coast RSL subbranch at Upper Coomera. Each and every year our local RSL subbranches and their members go above and beyond to mark important anniversaries in our nation's history, anniversaries of battles fought that have won our freedom and that have created some of the wonderful traditions we have in this country today. Their commemorative services are a constant reminder of the service and sacrifice of our men and women, both past and present, and keep the spirit of national pride at the forefront of our minds. Importantly, they educate a younger generation, who have never experienced the vicissitudes of war because of the service these men and women have provided to our country.

RSLs around Australia play an important role in providing a voice for our service men and women. They maintain the lasting ties of mateship and perpetuate the spirit of the Anzac. It is always wonderful to visit a club for any event, but their community spirit spreads so much further than commemorative services. They also provide much-needed support to those who have served our nation and their families. When a current or ex-serviceperson is sick or down on their luck, our local RSL subbranches are there to help. Their arms of support are outstretched to help with pensions, welfare, medical attention and finding accommodation, housing or even suitable employment, or they just provide somebody to talk to. Our RSLs provide a strong voice for the ex-servicemen community.

RSLs advocate for serving and ex-servicemen in their dealings with the Department of Veterans' Affairs. That is why this legislation is so important. As I said at the outset, I have had many occasions to speak with veterans who are having difficulties dealing with the Department of Veterans' Affairs, whether it is because of lost or missing documents or because when a same issue arises a different decision has been made. I have spoken with the current Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Dan Tehan—and I congratulate him on the work he is doing to bring the Department of Veterans' Affairs into the digital age to better support our veterans—and previous ministers about the value and importance of upgrading the ICT system in the department to ensure we reduce claim processing times and automate and streamline existing processes.

This legislation will commence the process of enabling timely information sharing between the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Department of Defence with the objective—and this is the important thing—of ensuring we take better care of our veterans. In many instances this will be a very difficult time in their lives. This information sharing will also promote healthy workplace practices for existing serving members of our armed forces. The public interest disclosure provisions will help the department address the problems with being unable to share information that currently restrict their ability to take care of the health, welfare and other issues that face our veterans and serving service men and women.

The Senate inquiries have led to a number of recommendations. Two amendments to this bill will strengthen the safeguards around the public interest disclosure provision, as the member for Kingston touched on. The first amendment to the bill states that the minister 'must' rather than 'may' make rules governing this provision. If the rules are not issued, the provision cannot be used. The second amendment puts in place a mandatory review of this provision after two years. This review will be given to the government and must be tabled after 15 sitting days. With the DVA undertaking veteran-centric reforms to improve services for veterans and their families, it is important the coalition government supports their work with these necessary legislative amendments. I believe this bill provides some important changes that will better support the Department of Veterans' Affairs as they seek to improve the services that they provide to our veterans and their families.

I note that the Labor shadow minister has cooperated on this bill. I retract my earlier statement about Centrelink and DVA. I commend this bill to the House.

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