Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

That is right. But he is correct to say that the former member for Bruce was a very good and successful Minister for Veterans' Affairs and very well thought of in the veterans community. I know, as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs who followed him, that he had done a lot of good work which we were able to build upon. I know the current minister is building even further upon that work, some of which was started by the former member for Bruce, Mr Griffith.

This bill is an important piece of legislation. As has been described by previous members, it has a number of components to it, but at the outset I just want to congratulate both the minister and the shadow minister, the member for Kingston, for working in a collaborative and bipartisan way. It seems to me that the best interests of our veterans community are always best served when we are working in a bipartisan fashion. It has been my experience both as a minister and as a former minister that that is the case. It was an open discussion with my shadow ministers at the time about what we were doing and any ideas they might have had. I welcomed them.

I think it is important that we understand that the veterans community expects that of us. If it can be avoided, they do not want to see politicised debates around issues to do with veterans. I know that the minister at the table is working assiduously to try to make sure that is not the case, and, similarly, the shadow minister has got the same mindset, so it is a very good thing to do. I know that, in the context of the meetings I had—now more occasional than they were before—with veterans, they are keen to make sure that those relationships continue to build.

And it is important. There are some big issues which confront the veterans community, and we have seen many of them come to light over the last little while around mental health, suicide and homelessness—issues which are important for us to have our minds around and to have a common approach to. I commend the minister for the work he is doing in that regard.

There are genuine concerns out there that at some point the Department of Veterans' Affairs might be absorbed into another department. I think it is fair to say that, certainly from my own personal perspective, I would see that as a very bad thing to do and a backward step, and I know that is a view which is shared by the minister. At the same time, however, it is very important that, whilst we learn the lessons from the departments of human services and social services, we do not follow their path. We have heard the debate elucidate issues around robocalls and the way debt recovery is taking place in those other agencies, and we need to make sure such things do not happen in the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

At the same time, however, it is absolutely imperative that the relationship between the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Department of Defence is as seamless as possible, and that includes in the information-sharing space. That is for the welfare of serving members and veterans, bearing in mind that anyone who walks into a recruitment base, does their recruit training, puts on a uniform and signs up is effectively potentially a client of the Department of Veterans' Affairs from the day they walk in and will be that until the day they die. That is important to understand.

I know we have gone through a range of issues over the years about how we get this closer working relationship without Defence subsuming Veterans' Affairs within it. It is really important. I note that the minister has, as I did, joint portfolio responsibility to do with personnel and Veterans' Affairs. That is a really good thing because he now has oversight of personnel in the Defence Force and has oversight of those former Defence members—or even current Defence members—who are clients of the Department of Veterans' Affairs. We know many current serving members are clients of the Department of Veterans' Affairs because of injuries and accidents that they have suffered from as a result of their service, so it is fundamentally important that that relationship is as close as possible, and I commend the government for making sure that the portfolio arrangements were set up so that the Minister for Veterans' Affairs is also responsible for Defence personnel. That is as it should be, and I hope that future governments of whatever political persuasion keep that happening, because it makes the Defence Force accountable but it also means that the minister can take the knowledge of the Veterans' Affairs portfolio into the Defence portfolio and make sure there is a proper and clear understanding of the needs of our veterans whilst they are serving and when they leave service.

To that end, making sure there is a capacity to provide information from Veterans' Affairs to Defence is very important, and this bill provides for that. The minister is all too well aware that upgrading the digital platforms in Veterans' Affairs is extremely important, because that then provides the capacity for a seamless provision of information in a digital form to the Department of Defence and vice versa. And why is that important? It is because, if we have got a veteran who is making a claim against the government for an injury that that person has had and which caused an illness some years ago, historically that meant an enormous paper search and a prolonged process before the claim was settled. Once we have the electronic health record working efficiently and properly in the Department of Defence and we have got the seamless transfer of information between the two organisations around those particular sorts of issues, it will be far easier and a lot better in terms of dealing with the claims of veterans for benefits, treatment, medical help or whatever it is from the Department of Veterans' Affairs, because they will have that information almost automatically at hand. That is really important.

It also goes to the transition space. Handing people a document as they leave the organisation and saying, 'Give that to your Veterans' Affairs adviser,' is not the way things should be. People should know information which is agreed upon can be shared, and, when it is agreed upon and shared, it will make opportunities for working with veterans a lot better and they will feel a lot more satisfied with the way in which they have been treated. Now, we have heard in the past people complaining—properly complaining, I might say, in the time that I was a minister—about the time that it had taken to deal with their claims. What we need to do is expedite that process. The change in the digital platform and the other reforms that are taking place in the Department of Veterans' Affairs will provide that capacity, and that is important. It is important that we recognise that that work is underway and it will be a time before it is all finished, but nevertheless it is important that we do it.

I have a couple of issues, though, which I think we need to be aware of. When we have automated decision-making, it is true that there are relatively large numbers of people who are veterans, widows or widowers who are clients of the Department of Veterans' Affairs who are not digitally aware. They still like snail mail and they still like to talk to someone, because that is the way they understand how to work. They may not have access to computers. Even if they do have access to computers, they might find it very challenging to use that interface.

It is important that we keep the capacity of the Department of Veterans' Affairs to be personally engaged with members of the veterans community who are their clients and potential clients, whether they are serving members, former members, veterans, widows, widowers or the children of veterans, who are all clients of the Department of Veterans' Affairs. I am not sure who is the youngest client at the Department of Veterans' Affairs at the moment, but I am guessing they are a child of a former veteran who may not be with us and they are probably an infant. We take responsibility for that person—I beg your pardon, the government takes responsibility for them through the department.

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