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

I second the motion and thank the member for Herbert for putting it forward. I'm pleased for him that the Oasis is up and running. I've been to Townsville a number of times since the last federal election and have met with the people associated with the Oasis. They are good people with very committed hearts and are very determined to make sure that veterans are cared for in Townsville. I thank the Queensland government for the leadership they've shown in this space as well.

At the outset, I also want to say that Labor recognises the services and the sacrifices of those men and women in the ADF, along with their families, and we strongly support the concept of veterans' wellbeing centres. In fact, we announced three veterans' support centres—in Darwin, Townsville and, in my electorate, Ipswich—in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election, well before the government pledged its six veterans' wellbeing centres. In the end, Labor committed to seven veterans' hubs around the country, one more than the Liberals and Nationals.

The idea of these centres is that they are being developed in partnership with ex-service organisations, state governments and other organisations to act as a hub, or a one-stop shop, for wraparound services and the referrals for veterans and families when it comes to health, mental health, employment and other transition assistance, advocacy, wellbeing, and support. They also provide a space for community organisations and are a place to meet for friendship and fellowship, post service, by ADF personnel.

I'd like to remind the member for Herbert, however, and the parliament, that the government committed to having all six of these centres up and running by last year. It's now 2021, and only half of the centres have been completed: the Perth centre last year, the Adelaide centre earlier this year and the Townsville centre just recently. The remaining centres—Nowra, Wodonga and Darwin—are still yet to find permanent sites and are expected to open only in 2022, a full two years behind schedule. This blowout is looking more and more like just another broken promise from the Liberals and the Nationals. There's nothing in the May budget to fast-track the delivery of these centres, and they're well behind schedule. It goes to show that this is a government which likes to make announcements but never delivers and never follows through.

I note that there is some money in the 2021-22 budget—$10.7 million—to establish two new veterans' wellbeing centres, in Tasmania and South-East Queensland. We call on the government to announce precisely where they're going to be. In consideration in detail last week, the member for Herbert let the cat out of the bag by revealing that the Tasmanian centre will be located in the marginal Liberal-held seat of Braddon. I congratulate the member for Braddon on his recent arrival. There's something else that's going to arrive in his electorate, according to the member for Herbert: a veterans' hub. We've heard reports that the Tasmanian veterans' hub will be rolled out in Burnie, in Braddon. I saw that the Minister for Veterans' Affairs was down there recently with the member for Braddon, meeting with local veterans to talk about this issue.

The local organisation may well be a good organisation, but it's important that the minister comes out and tells us, and the Tasmanian veterans, precisely where this will be. I note that the government and the Department of Veterans' Affairs are working with the state government in Tasmania on a feasibility study. That concluded in January this year, so the minister needs to reveal the findings of the study and the consultations. It would be much, much better.

He also needs to tell us where the South-East Queensland veteran wellbeing centre will be located. I notice the minister issued a joint media release with the Minister for Defence following the budget, so I'm guessing this veterans hub will be plonked in the member for Dickson's electorate. I remind the member for Dickson that his colleague the member for Ryan, whose electorate takes in the Enoggera army base, also wants a veterans hub. The minister will need to work through all of that to work out whether it's Ryan or Dickson. We'll see which one is most likely to be in debate at the next election. He owes it to veterans in South-East Queensland to say where the wellbeing centre will be.

It's worth reminding the chamber that in 2016 the then Liberal candidate in my electorate announced an unfunded commitment for a veterans recovery centre in Ipswich. I called it out as a cynical election bribe at the time, and sure enough the government never delivered on it. Despite my written request to the then Minister for Veterans' Affairs that it be honoured, the initiative was quietly dropped from LNP policy in 2019. Ipswich has the largest veteran population in South-East Queensland and it's home to RAAF Base Amberley, the biggest air base in the country, so it makes perfect sense for the government to deliver a veterans hub in Ipswich. The government needs to do the right thing and honour its original 2016 election promise. But the government has a bit of form when it comes to not honouring election promises and doing certain things—we note the sports rorts, regional rorts and the colour-coded spreadsheets.

I acknowledge the member for Herbert and thank him for this motion, but the government needs to do much better in the area of veterans hubs. I call on the government to announce one in my electorate and honour their previous commitment.

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