Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all senators who have contributed to the debate on this bill. The purpose of the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Veteran-centric Reforms No. 1) Bill 2018 is to implement several new initiatives to deliver a range of services to the veterans community and their families to address concerns raised in the Senate Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade References Committee report The constant battle: suicide by veterans.

Schedule 1 of the bill introduces a range of measures in the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004, aimed at providing additional family support to veterans and their families. The government is committed to supporting the partners and the families of our veterans. Families make a significant contribution to the health and wellbeing of Australian Defence Force members throughout their careers, through the transition process and when they become civilians also. The role of family can be particularly important in the treatment and recovery of ill or injured individuals throughout their lives.

Building on the funding provided in the 2017-18 budget, an additional $7.1 million will be provided over four years to extend the support available to families of veterans. This additional support will include greater access to child care, additional home care and counselling, which will help families maintain their connections to their community and employment. The family support amendments will provide additional and practical services designed to improve veterans' health and wellbeing and to assist families of veterans to support them. The services will increase childcare assistance and extend brief intervention counselling for up to five years post discharge for veterans with current rehabilitation plans and their partners and immediate family. It will provide child care, home-care assistance and counselling to the partners and families of a veteran who has served in a recent conflict and who has died, either as a result of the recent conflict or by suicide, for a period of two years from the death of that veteran.

Schedule 2 will create a new veteran payment that will benefit approximately 830 veterans and 690 partners—a total of 1,520 people in the 2018-19 financial year. The veteran payment is a new income support payment that will provide vulnerable veterans with interim financial support until their claim for a liability for a mental health condition is determined. A key focus of the veteran payment is vocational and psychosocial rehabilitation, which includes financial counselling and budgeting. Partners of veterans may also be eligible for the veteran payment, and veterans with dependent children will be entitled to the maximum rate of family tax benefit part A without being subject to the family tax benefit means test while they receive the veteran payment.

Schedule 3 will enable selected white-card holders to participate in the new Coordinated Veterans' Care Program mental health pilot: $3.6 million has been allocated to this pilot, which is focused on veterans with mild to moderate anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder and associated physical health problems, such as musculoskeletal pain. The pilot will be embedded in the existing Coordinated Veterans' Care Program, which uses a team based model of care, led by a general practitioner and supported by a practice nurse.

The veterans participating will be able to access an additional coach application on a smartphone or smart device. The digital application is based upon cognitive behavioural therapy principles. Clinical oversight for the pilot will be provided by a health call-monitoring facility, staffed by registered nurses and supervised by a mental health nurse.

Schedule 4 will amend the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 to align it with the changes to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1998 and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988, relating to catastrophic injuries or disease. It will ensure that veterans with a catastrophic injury or disease will receive at least the same entitlements as civilian employees. These amendments will clarify the legislative basis for payments for household and attendant care services for veterans with a catastrophic injury or disease.

Schedule 5 will simplify the determination of qualifying service by automating the process and removing the requirement for a veteran to make application for a determination. This measure is a key part of the VCR program, which aims to put veterans and their needs at the forefront of the delivery of services by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Other measures in this bill will extend gold card eligibility to ADF members who served in Japan at the end of World War II before the establishment of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, and make a number of minor and technical amendments to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 and the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 as it relates to the operation of the Specialist Medical Review Council.

Each of the measures in this bill will mean better outcomes and improved services for veterans and their families. I commend this bill to the chamber.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.