Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Technology and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier this year the Australian National Audit Office released an audit of the Veterans' Children Education Scheme, VCES, and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act Education and Training Scheme, let us just call that MRCAETS. The audit was a sobering analysis of how the government has certainly failed to ensure policies affecting veterans' children have kept pace with changes in the broader income support arrangements facing all Australians. In a repeat of their 2009 decision to exclude veteran disability pensions from the Harmer review of pensions, despite a hand-on-heart promise of the Treasurer on Brisbane radio on 12 September 2008 to do so, the government decided that payments to veterans' kids under VCES or MRCAETS would not be similarly adjusted. Instead, the government advised veterans to ring Centrelink to find out whether they would be better off under the family tax benefit system rather than DVA's own compensation-based education support system.

The audit found that, during the life of the scheme, changes in the wider social policy environment have at various times challenged DVA's policy and coordination capacity. Audit's analysis also indicates that, at least as far back as 2004, some students may have been financially better off by claiming benefits other than those offered by the VCES. However, DVA did not formally notify affected clients of this option until January 2012. According to the audit, the government rejected a DVA request to address the anomalous situation, saving $2 million by forcing veterans' families to Centrelink rather than DVA.

This situation would be bad enough on its own if the audit did not then find that the legislative provisions governing the VCES and MRCAETS were being flouted because of a lack of funding. The legislation requires VCES volunteer board members to travel and meet face-to-face with students, teachers and parents as part of the nation's obligations to assist these families. Funding for VCES board members to travel to see these students in rural and regional areas was slashed from a budget of $40,000 to just $10,000. This is particularly concerning, given that one of every two students under VCES and MRCAETS lives outside metropolitan areas, particularly in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania. Because of the lack of funding for outreach required by the legislation, volunteer board members were instead forced to rely on written reports sent to them by schools, rather than meeting face-to-face with the veteran, the student and the school to discuss the student's progress. The audit report highlighted the important role that these outreach arrangements have in assisting children of veterans to achieve better education outcomes.

Minister, this happened on your government's watch. Whilst we note that the department has accepted two recommendations from the ANAO, it may be cold comfort to veterans' families who have recently relied on a system that has been found to be broken. Minister, can you explain why the government rejected DVA's 2011 request to align VCES payments with the new FTB arrangement announced in the 2010 election? Will you also confirm that this rejection, to save just $2 million over four years, comes when advertising expenses for, for example, Gonski reforms are $21 million and, for NBN, $5 million?

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