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

I rise to speak on the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Exempting Disability Payments from Income Testing and Other Measures) Bill 2021. I want to join the member for Monash in reminding all honourable members of this House that we are indeed, as this parliament draws to a close, at a special and particular time in the history of this parliament, with the member for Lingiari leaving. I was reminded of his father yesterday, who served in the independent companies in World War II, with the passing of Jim Ellwood. Jim was the last veteran from the island of Timor, during World War II. He served with the 4th Independent Company. From this, we remember a couple of things. One is that the Department of Veterans' Affairs is providing services not only to veterans of the Second World War but, through the generations to the current day, to a young Australian soldier, sailor or aviator who is injured, who would need some support, who is in service as we speak.

I want to thank my friend the member for Lingiari for all those veterans' lives he made better during his service as the veterans affairs minister. Whether it was here in Australia or overseas, he represented us with distinction. I know so many people whose lives he made better because of his work with the department and because of the ex-service organisations getting good results. I will mention one person from my electorate. He is someone who is a big character in the Northern Territory who served with the Department of Defence, in Maralinga. He was left to cover all his own medical bills as he fought cancer and had different procedures. To receive that acknowledgement, and that gold card, made all the difference to him. Thanks, Woz, for all you did for the veterans community and all those families. I support that sentiment 100 per cent—that making life better for our veterans and their families is the focus, and that that should never be lost in the back and forth of this place.

I want to say upfront that I support the intent of this bill, and Labor is supporting it. Later I will make some comments about a veteran that I want to bring to the attention of the minister and the House. I am glad the government has responded to the calls of veterans and their families, and of federal Labor, to implement the measures that were first announced in the 2020-21 budget and were due to commence in September this year. That time frame, as I understand it, has been brought forward. In particular, around rent assistance, key elements of the measure contained in this bill will commence on 1 January next year. This is positive news. Labor is of course supporting them, particularly as there is some urgency to get this legislation passed so that they can start on 1 January. I won't take my whole 15 minutes, so that we're able to crack on with the work that needs to be done.

As the member for Lingiari mentioned, there are those who have been speaking out loudly. Of course TPI veterans would prefer an increase in the TPI payment, and the TPI Federation has been campaigning for that. The Prime Minister did commission the Tune review just before the last election, and I hope that he hasn't raised the TPI Federation's expectations about an increase in that payment by telling them they had a compelling case, without being willing to follow through with that. I guess we'll see in the coming months. Some TPIs have obviously seen it as a breach of trust, seeing that their wishes have been ignored, but it is why Labor—in its desire to make sure that our veterans do have the government held accountable—set up an independent Senate inquiry. That inquiry found that the TPI Federation did make a compelling case and recommended an increase in the TPI payment. I would point those opposite to the comments of even some of their own members such as former General Jim Molan, who's also supporting the TPI case.

On top of this, we heard in Senate estimates recently that the department is struggling to deal with a huge backlog of veterans' claims, with 68 per cent of disability pension claims yet to be finalised as of April this year. I can tell you that a wife of a currently serving member has contacted me—and I'll be writing to the minister—to say that, after in excess of 530 days, he still hasn't had someone allocated to his case and he is, obviously, still waiting for a determination as he transitions. That period of transition is really important. I think we're going to hear out of the royal commission story after story about how some of our veterans have declined in terms of their mental health through the long periods of waiting. Let me make it clear, though, when I say this I'm not taking anything away from the passion and hard work of the employees of the Department of Veterans' Affairs—not at all. But governments make decisions about resource allocation, and, obviously, what needs to happen is that resources are allocated so that we're dealing with these cases of our veterans much more quickly than we currently are and there's more support.

The chair of the royal commission has also called out the government for pre-empting and duplicating the work and recommendations of the royal commission with this latest review that's been talked about recently, with McKinsey, so I just encourage the minister to ensure that we're not duplicating effort and we're not retraumatising. And, as I did in the other chamber just a little while ago, I call on the minister and the government to make sure that there are 24-hour human resources, mental health resources and counsellors for those families and veterans involved in the royal commission to access. Often we find that after hours is when the black dog can visit, so I think it's important during these hearings that there is 24-hour care.

As I said, Labor supports this legislation. We do believe that our veterans and their families deserve the best support. I want to, again, thank all of those who are working on this very important royal commission, because it will, I'm sure, identify trends where those patriotic men and women of the Defence Force fall through the cracks and identify how that has happened so that we can, in a systematic way, make those changes that mean that we will give them what the member for Lingiari said during his speech, which is: through what we do, make life better for our veterans and their families.

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