Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

Labor acknowledge, Minister, that there are some positive initiatives in the budget, and I said that in my response to your statement in parliament, and we welcome the expansion with open arms. We recognise the fact that much of what you have done in terms of the expansion in relation to mental health issues came about after I wrote you a letter in relation to this issue, asking for—as the RSLs have asked for—additional assistance in relation to the coronavirus issues and the consequences of that that have been experienced.

One of the things about the budget that I'm disappointed with is that the government has failed to increase the DVA fees for allied health workers—physiotherapists, occupational therapists and the like. I understood that there had been assurances given to ESOs and to individuals. We on this side of the chamber even heard from some of your colleagues in relation to that, but it wasn't in the budget. One of the things that I found very disappointing, Minister, was the fact that those particular aspects of the physical health of veterans were left off. Occupational therapists and physiotherapists are very important. One of the other issues that we found disturbing in relation to the department was the evidence given in Senate estimates just last week that 80 per cent of claims are taking four to five weeks to allocate and that, alarmingly, it is taking up to 300 days to allocate some initial liability claims. Minister, you boast about the fact that there is an increase in clients at DVA. We applaud the fact that there is greater contact with veterans who may be in major cities or regional towns et cetera, but surely, in view of the fact that there was a program where you were undertaking to increase client contact, you would have expected the department to have been prepared for this. But it looks like the government hasn't done that at all, Minister. Why is that?

In Senate estimates, the DVA revealed that 42 per cent of your workforce has been outsourced through labour hire companies as a result of the government's arbitrary cap on the number of public servants. Minister, would you agree that what you are doing is effectively privatising, outsourcing and labour hiring? Some of the multinational companies that were referred to by your officials in Senate estimates are some of the biggest labour hire companies in the world. The government seems to be losing corporate knowledge and historical context, in terms of the capacity of public servants who are at the coalface of frontline services, and getting in people who may or may not have any experience in delivering frontline services. Minister, are you asking the government to lift the arbitrary cap, and are you going to stop privatising and outsourcing and labour hiring in the department? This is an ongoing problem. We've asked this question again and again during Senate estimates, and each Senate estimates we get the same response from the departmental officials. It's invariably the case that the department is above 40 per cent in terms of labour hire 'employees' in the department. This is a significant problem. The feedback that Labor has been getting from the veterans community, the ESOs and individual veterans is that this is a problem in your department, and you're not fixing it.

This problem has been alluded to in reports. The Productivity Commission report that was released by your government on 2 July 2019 talked about the fact that the whole system was difficult to navigate, out of date and convoluted. It's not going to get any better while you have labour hiring and outsourcing and you don't have experienced, committed full-time public servants at the frontline of service delivery. Minister, I ask that you do something about this. What is your response in relation to that? Do you have any plans to lift the arbitrary cap? What are you going to do about this? Are you going to take up the recommendations of the Productivity Commission report?

I will deal with that issue, Minister, in the time remaining. That report came out on 2 July 2019. You've responded to 25 of the 69 recommendations. Why is it taking you so long to respond? And when are you going to respond positively in relation to it? Why did it take you so long, despite the fact that I asked you questions in question time and we've asked you questions repeatedly in relation to this issue, to rule out changes to the gold card? That created so much uncertainty in the veterans community, so much anxiety and so much confusion. Minister, why couldn't you rule that out straightaway? When are you going to respond to the Productivity Commission report in a timely and fulsome way to give certainty to the veteran community?

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