Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I always welcome the opportunity to speak on veterans' affairs in this place. It's an issue that's very close to my heart and in fact was a significant reason that I put my hand up for political service. Our veterans definitely deserve a much better deal and obviously welcome the long-fought-for royal commission that's very much required. I'd like to thank and acknowledge the member for Herbert for raising this motion. Like me and others in this place, he is a veteran, so he understands from his own lived experience how important these wellbeing centres are. While we might be on the opposite side of politics, I would like to acknowledge the member for Herbert's ongoing service to our nation.

The motion put forward talks about veteran wellbeing centres, and of course the concept is a fantastic one. To have centres in our communities, particularly those with large concentrations of veterans, like my electorate in Darwin, and the families there, they need support. One of the many complaints I've heard for many years is that services aren't integrated, they're too segmented and there is seldom enough follow-up. Follow-up is important. I caught up with Heston Russell, a veteran, a former commando, this week. His consultation process for the terms of reference for the royal commission had 861 submissions. That is a huge amount of feedback from veterans. Six hundred and fifty-four responses to an optional question on that consultation process were about veteran experiences.

Out of the responses there were 117 veterans who had attempted suicide and 328 who had contemplated suicide or had suicidal ideation. Of those submissions, 190 had been admitted for mental health issues. That is why, with the member for Kingston, Labor committed to a veterans' wellbeing centre in Darwin in my electorate well before the last federal election. Later on, we saw from the federal government announcements about a range of wellbeing centres, and obviously I welcomed that; despite the lack of detail, at least they were seeing what we were announcing and seeing that it was a good thing. They promised $5 million for a veterans' wellbeing centre in Darwin.

Of course on budget night I looked with great interest to see where the $5 million was in the budget over the forward estimates for the establishment of a veterans' wellbeing centre in Darwin in my electorate; but, unfortunately, there was a grand total of zero dollars in the federal budget. There was no $5 million in the federal budget for a wellbeing centre in Darwin. Mates4Mates is rolling out an interim site. It's been a very long and slow process. But it's very concerning to me, obviously, that there's no $5 million in the federal budget for a wellbeing centre for our veterans and for our families in my electorate. Obviously, to whoever is the veterans' affairs minister after the National Party go through their reshuffle: I really hope that that money is put in there, because that's what was promised to the veterans and families of my electorate. It is very difficult to provide a veterans wellbeing centre without any money—and then it obviously has to be effective.

I want to reflect on the need to treat our veterans and their families with respect. It took years of lobbying for them to get to the point of a royal commission. The failure to put the money in the budget for the veterans wellbeing centre in Darwin is another example of how those opposite are letting down veterans in my electorate. It needs to be funded. In the time remaining, I want to acknowledge the establishment of the Council of Australian Veterans NT and I want to acknowledge the work of the ESOs that are going to be part of that Council of Australian Veterans. They are sick of the delays and they want some action. Veterans are standing up, and they will get that action with federal Labor.

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