Kim Wilkie (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Security and Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (One-off Payments and Other 2007 Budget Measures) Bill 2007 and to add my comments to those of the shadow minister, the member for Bruce, and the shadow parliamentary secretary, the member for Cowan. Before I commence specific comments on this bill, I would like to say that the way veterans are treated by their country is a measure of the quality of a nation. Those men and women who served Australia in the forces deserve our highest praise and they deserve their sacrifices to be recognised and applauded by all of us. It upsets and disturbs me when I hear of veterans who are suffering difficulties in accessing the pensions and the support services which they are due. Every single one of us has a duty to ensure that the systems which administer the pensions and benefits which veterans receive are efficient in delivering those services. Sadly, this is not always the case.

While I congratulate the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs on the increase in pensions contained in this bill, I would have dearly liked to have seen the government do much more for veterans. Every Anzac Day and Remembrance Day we bow our heads to pray and say, ‘Lest we forget.’ As we honour those who served, we should never forget the obligation we have to all of our returned service men and women to ensure that the programs in place for them and their families are well funded and efficiently delivered.

As I said earlier, a country can be judged by the way it treats its veterans. While successive Australian governments have recognised the obligation of all of us to veterans through the payment of pensions and benefits, I am concerned that we have allowed the situation to drift and that now our veterans are under immense financial pressure. In my electorate there are a number of very active RSL clubs, which I have the privilege of visiting on a regular basis. Most of these clubs have members who are TPIs and disabled veterans on pensions. I often hear dreadful accounts of the experiences of these veterans in making ends meet with the current levels of income that their pensions provide. Therefore, I support the measures in this bill which provide additional income.

However, more is needed. That is why the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister for veterans’ affairs, the member for Bruce, have announced a major policy change to provide tangible improvements to the lives of our disabled veterans which would be in addition to the measures contained in this bill. Labor would increase benefits for our nation’s most severely disabled war veterans by restoring the value of the special rate disability pension, TPI and TTI, intermediate rate and the extreme disablement adjustment pensions by indexing all of these pensions to movements in male total average weekly earnings or the consumer price index, whichever is the greater. This policy change will affect more than 43,000 war veterans with disabilities and is budgeted to cost $61 million. In the first four years after implementation of this change, the recipients of these pensions will be $1,700 better off, with their pensions building to $30 a fortnight more than they would otherwise have been, not including the changes that are announced in this bill. So they would be far better off even than that.

Labor’s proposal concerns the most severely disabled of our war veterans. They include those who fought and served in conflicts including World War II, Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, the Gulf War, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. We are already seeing veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan needing assistance. Already eight soldiers who served in Afghanistan and two from Iraq would be eligible under Labor’s proposal for these enhanced arrangements and, therefore, higher pensions.

We have heard from many individuals and representatives of the veteran community about the importance of this issue. In 1997, when the Howard government indexed a range of other pensions, they left out the above general rate disability pensions. Since that time there has been an erosion of the value of these pensions compared to other pensions. For example, in 1997 the special rate disability pension represented 46.3 per cent of male total average weekly earnings. On the most recent figures available, it now represents only 42.9 per cent. If the Howard government had not squibbed the issue in 1997, these pensions would now be between $70 and $90 a fortnight higher. The Howard government provided only partial male total average weekly earnings indexation in 2004 after sustained protests from the veteran community. We should never be in a position where our veterans have to scream out in order to be treated fairly. In a decent and fair society with a reasonably good government, it should automatically happen that these people get looked after. In fact, what was done in 2004 was merely a bandaid solution that failed to fully address the problem.

I welcome the government’s budget announcement that it will increase the veterans special rate disability pensions by $25 and $50 respectively. But this is window dressing at best. It further demonstrates the government’s reluctance to fully acknowledge the sacrifices of our veterans who have been incapacitated as a result of their service to our country. These men and women did not ever fail us, but the government repays them by sticking a new bandaid over the old one, hoping the old one will go away. Without the indexation Labor has proposed, we will be revisiting this issue time and time again as veterans entitlements fail to keep up with the growth of other pensions. There has been no other issue that has been the subject of greater, sustained and more passionate concern in the veterans community over the last 10 years than this one.

This is not just a concern that affects people in Western Australia—this issue affects people right across Australia. In fact, I was just talking with the prior member for Braddon, Sid Sidebottom, before I came down here. A very high number of these people live in the area that he previously represented, and he is very passionate about the fact that this issue needs to be dealt with and commends Labor on its initiative of trying to index pensions into the future.

Our disabled veterans have paid a very high price for their service to our country. Whilst the measures announced in this bill help restore some balance, they can only be effective if they include the measures recommended by this side of the House. This is about fixing an injustice. Labor has listened to our nation’s veterans, and it is time the coalition did the same. I commend the bill to the House but, again, I urge the government to implement Labor’s initiative for proper indexation of these pensions and to give these people the respect and income they deserve in the future.

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