Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As did the minister, when he provided his statement, I begin by acknowledging in this place all those who have served in the Australian Defence Force and their families, including the members for Solomon and Herbert, who are here in the chamber today. I acknowledge also those service men and women, and their families, across Australia on this day. I am delighted to speak on this third annual ministerial statement on veterans and their families, and I feel uniquely qualified in this space because both myself and my wife, Peta, are veterans, and we have three children, two of whom were born whilst we were still both serving in the Australian Regular Army.

To help illuminate some of the challenges that families face, I thought I'd start by sharing a personal story. In our first year of married life my wife and I spent a grand total of nine weeks together, which brought its own challenges, although we reckon one upside was that every time we did see each other, it was a bit like another honeymoon. Moving forward to the following year, we somehow managed to fall pregnant with what became our first child, and we were posted to Darwin. In that same year I was posted as a young platoon commander across to East Timor. Whilst I was away on that deployment to East Timor we were posted to Townsville, which meant that, whilst I was away, my eight-months pregnant wife needed to move in the Darwin tropical heat on her own, with no family support, from Darwin to Townsville. When Peta got to Townsville and was busily carrying boxes down to the storage room underneath our accommodation, which I still hadn't seen, a storm came through and the basement area flooded, which meant that all our boxes of clothing, including all the baby clothing that was there in preparation, was flooded and ruined. So there was my wife, eight months pregnant, in the stifling Townsville heat, having just moved house by herself, dealing with an insurance claim and about to have our first child. Two weeks later, it was Christmas Eve and Peta was sitting in midnight mass in the church in Townsville when she started having contractions. She raced out to the hospital and bore our first child on Christmas Day. My mother-in-law made it across from Perth to Townsville just in time to cut the cable ceremoniously, with me on the end of a satellite phone on the border between Indonesia and East Timor.

That's just one story, and I thought I'd never be forgiven for it. Funnily enough, I was forgiven and I get in more trouble nowadays for forgetting to unpack the dishwasher. Thankfully, we did recover. I thought I'd share that story. It's only one story of a great many stories, in fact, of tens of thousands of challenging stories that occur every day, in which veterans and their husbands, wives, partners and of course children manage complexity and challenging circumstances.

Let me now touch on another issue that is very important to veterans and their families, which is the circumstances of transition. Just as enlistment and basic training are important in the ADF, transition back into civilian life is extremely important. Every year, 5½ thousand people transition out of defence and back into civilian life. This government is investing so heavily in transition support so that, regardless of the time that a member has served, members can access coaching, including career planning; full service documentation; skills recognition; and resume preparation, as well as job search programs and financial literacy education.

It's important to note that it is not just the government who are supporting veterans and their families during transition. There are some amazing organisations who are also providing support. One of those is the veterans transition centre in Jarrahdale, in my electorate of Canning in my home state of Western Australia. It is situated in a natural bush setting, nestled in the Darling Ranges on about 42 acres. It is only 45 minutes from the CBD of Perth, but it provides an amazing bush retreat for veterans and their families. Here there are 20 A-frame log cabins, a communal hall, a kitchen area, barbecue facilities and an outdoor fire area. It's a place where veterans and their families can visit for planned, as well as unplanned, activities.

I was really pleased that Minister Chester visited just Friday a week ago and was able also to see firsthand one of the activities that were underway. This activity was being conducted by an organisation called The Younger Heroes. The mission of Younger Heroes is to strengthen families. Younger Heroes run a three-day physical and psychological training camp designed to reconnect veterans and those who've served the nation with their children and to build resilience in those relationships through shared effort and open communications. I was really pleased that my wife, Peta, and our three children, were also participants in this Younger Heroes camp. It was quite timely having the minister, my wife and three kids all there on the same day. My wife reported back to me afterwards that it was an amazing experience, being there with our three teenage children, reconnecting in that bush setting, with some planned and unplanned activities, along with other veterans and their kids.

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