Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to follow my friend the member for Herbert. We share a lot of very similar views on this stuff. It is so important, and there should be no division between anyone when it comes to this.

I rise to support our Australian veterans. From the outset I will say that Labor will not oppose this legislation, as it will improve assistance currently available to many disabled veterans. The parliament owes a duty to the men and women who serve our country in uniform. These Australians place themselves in the path of danger so the rest of us don't need to. They make immense sacrifices so that we can all live a safer life. Owing to the significance of the sacrifices they have made, we must ensure that our care for service men and women extends beyond their time in uniform.

The bill aims to simplify and better target support for the most severely impaired veterans. This bill is in response to a review of the TPI payment conducted by Mr David Tune. As you know, Mr Deputy Speaker Vasta, Mr Tune was commissioned by the Prime Minister on the eve of the 2019 election to review the TPI payment. In his investigation, Mr Tune highlighted the disadvantage faced by many TPI veterans in private rental arrangements. The bill implements the recommendations from the Tune review and will simplify the payments and related administrative arrangements for veterans. It will do a number of things to increase the support provided to severely impaired veterans. It will remove the disability income rent test under the Veterans' Entitlements Act and allow some TPI veterans on low incomes in private rental accommodation to become eligible for Commonwealth rent assistance or receive a higher rate of CRA.

The bill also exempts the disability pension from the Social Security Act. This means that the existing Defence Force Income Support Allowance top-up payment can be abolished, as it's no longer deemed to be necessary. The bill will also combine separate indexation components for the extreme disablement pension adjustment and the intermediate rate of special rate pensions, the TPI payment, into one from September 2022 and establish a two-year non-liability rehabilitation pilot program in response to a PC review recommendation. Importantly, this bill will also rename the disability pension to the disability compensation payment. That clarifies that the pension is not an income support pension or welfare, a term the government likes to use, but a compensation payment—an acknowledgement, if you like, of the service that these men and women have provided that led to their impairment.

Whilst these changes are undoubtably important and will provide some benefit to the severely impaired veterans who they affect, we cannot pretend that this bill is enough. The government has been dragged kicking and screaming to many of the reforms presented in this bill. The Australian Federation of Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Ex Servicemen and Women was dismayed by the government's response to the Tune review. In particular, the measures to extend rent assistance were criticised by stakeholders, as they were estimated to only benefit around 10 per cent of TPI veterans. The TPI Federation has advocated for an increase in the TPI payment of around $10,000 a year for all TPI veterans in order to provide adequate assistance.

Furthermore, the rent assistance measure was originally scheduled to commence on September 2022. However, following pressure from Labor and the TPI Federation, the government backflipped and brought this forward to January 2022. It's important that they've done that. In response to the TPI Federation's concerns about the Tune review, this year Labor initiated a Senate inquiry into the adequacy of the TPI payment. That recommended an increase in the payment. However, in its response tabled on 7 October this year, the government ignored the recommendation and instead opted to do nothing.

It is clear that the government is not fully committed to providing the necessary support to severely impaired veterans. Whilst the changes in this bill are based on common sense, it's disappointing that the government has taken this long to implement them. The bill that has been proposed by the government reeks of tokenism. Labor will not oppose the bill. It's supported by Labor and stakeholders, as some change is better than none. We are not going to be the ones who put average aside because we seek perfection. We can't stop here. What we need to do is actually get the government to stop playing tokenism with veterans. Do the right thing; they deserve it.

A Labor government will seek to implement real and meaningful changes to the way in which we as a country support severely impaired veterans. An Albanese Labor government will offer more than the half-baked tokenism that's been put forward in this bill. As I said, we're not going to oppose this legislation, as it will improve and streamline assistance to veterans and improve their wellbeing. However, we know it is not what TPI veterans want. We know that what they want is a proper increase in the payment.

We do, however, condemn the Morrison government for their failure to accept the recommendation of the Senate inquiry that the TPI payment be increased. Such an increase would ensure our most disabled veterans are not left behind, something you'd think would be so important to every member of this chamber and the other place. For years, stakeholders have been arguing for an increase to the TPI payment. The government's response to a bipartisan inquiry was a slap in the face for Australia's 27,000 TPI veterans. It just goes to show that this is a government that's all about announcement; when it comes to delivery, they run and hide. This has a big impact for Australian veterans.

What is most disappointing is that before the 2019 election, the Prime Minister effectively promised to increase the payment, but since then he has deliberately and wilfully ignored the pleas of TPI veterans—and his own colleagues' advice—and failed to deliver on that. It is a pattern that Australians have become used to—all announcement, no delivery—except this time it's really impacting the people that this government say they care so much about.

After sitting on this review of the TPI payment for more than a year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in last year's budget that he would only provide rent assistance to a small proportion of TPI veterans. That means most veterans will miss out. We're not going to stand in the way of this legislation, but, along with many TPI veterans, we believe these tokenistic measures are not good enough, and our veterans and their families deserve much better.

When we look at this bill it's clear that only Labor is truly on the side of Australian ex-service men and women. It's clear that the Morrison government is only interested in its own image. The modest reforms put forth in this bill do not provide the necessary assistance to veterans and their families. All Australians deserve more than the Morrison government, especially our veterans. These men and women have made and continue to make immense sacrifices for our country, and they deserve full and unconditional support—not only those who have been in wars past but those who are going to be in the chapters of war that we face into the future. It's time we got things right.

Something I'm very, very passionate about is supporting our veterans. I think back to many times when we've had absolutely horrid discussions with DVA, and now we can't even get a response from the laziest minister that God ever put wind into. We need to have veterans looked after properly, efficiently and correctly. This bill that we see today before the House will simplify and streamline assistance to veterans and improve their wellbeing. It is better than nothing. I'm sorry that it is only a little bit, but we will continue to push and to support our veterans.

I make it very clear: the Morrison government should not construe the support of this side of the House as validation of the pitiful efforts they have provided veterans. Veterans and their families have not been a priority of this government. Only Labor is on the side of Australian veterans and their families. We know what they've been through, and we know what they deserve. They deserve not to be cast aside by this government. As I said, we will not oppose this bill, but the government should be on notice that we are not going to continue to allow them to make tokenistic gestures to our veterans in their time of most need and that we will continue to support them to get everything that they truly have earned and deserve.

See this speech in context