Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is on the side of Australian veterans and their families. That is why I and Labor will support this legislation that will simplify and streamline assistance to veterans. This will improve their wellbeing. Life has been made far too difficult for veterans and their families—individuals who have put their lives and wellbeing on the line in the interests of our nation. It is up to us to support them following their service. That's not something that has been adequate to date.

The Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Exempting Disability Payments from Income Testing and Other Measures) Bill 2021 addresses recommendations made by David Tune AO in his 2019 review of the totally and permanently incapacitated payment, or the Tune review, as well as the Productivity Commission's 2019 report A better way to support veterans. These reforms will simplify the administration of some payments for veterans and their dependants. This will be done by exempting disability payments from income testing under the Social Security Act, simplifying payment arrangements for 14,000 veterans and their dependants. This will remove the need for the defence force income support allowance, simplifying the administrative processes.

This legislation will also see increased access to rent assistance for our most disabled veterans—rent assistance that they have not been able to access at all before. This will benefit approximately 6,900 veterans and their dependants. This will mean that disabled veterans will now have access to the same rent assistance as those who receive Centrelink benefits. This will increase rent assistance payable to veterans and enable some disabled veterans to receive rent assistance for the first time. In particular, this measurement will benefit totally and permanently incapacitated veterans who presently do not receive any rent assistance due to the amount of compensation that they receive.

The third schedule in this bill will remove references to the term 'disability pension' in the Veterans' Entitlements Act. In future, this payment will be referred to as the disability compensation payment. This change will clarify that these payments are compensation and will reduce the potential for the payment to be confused with Services Australia's disability support pensions.

The bill's fourth schedule will streamline indexation for disability pension compensation. Currently, the extreme disablement adjustment intermediate rate and special rate pensions, colloquially known as the TPI payment, are split into two components for indexation purposes. This legislation will remove this anomaly so that the whole amount is indexed as one. As an aside, this is but one of many anomalies that currently exist between the Veterans' Entitlements Act, the MRCA and the DRCA, but it is good to at least get this one resolved. Overall, this will simplify DVA legislation, policy and procedures. It will help avoid confusion for veterans about the purpose and structure of the extreme disablement adjustment intermediate and special rates of disability pensions.

The fifth schedule in the bill introduces a pilot program for earlier access to rehabilitation. This non-liability rehabilitation pilot will enable individuals to commence DVA funded rehabilitation before a liability decision has been made under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act or the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act. Under these amendments, a two-year pilot will be established to bridge the gap and enable veterans to start their rehabilitation program sooner. This will improve and streamline the assistance that is provided to veterans whilst they are awaiting a liability decision, which can take some time.

However, the reality is, most veterans are looking for a TPI payment increase. The government has completely ignored concerns made by the Australian Federation of Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Ex Service Men and Women, as well as those of the Disabled Veterans of Australia Network, both of which have been raising the issue of the TPI payment level for many, many years—indeed, quite directly to me over my entire time in this parliament.

This led to the establishment of a Senate inquiry earlier this year. The Senate committee included both government and Labor senators as well as Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie, and its report was adopted unanimously. The committee found that submitters made a persuasive case for a fair and just structural increase in the above general rate component of the TPI payment to help restore the relative value of the payment and recognise and replace TPI veterans' loss of income. In fact, the committee noted correspondence from the Prime Minister, sent to the TPI Federation, where he said:

The TPI Federation makes a compelling case in relation to the relative value of the Above the General Rate (AGR) component of the SRDP [Special Rate of Disability Pension]. The fact that TPI veterans are not able to earn an income as a result of their service to our nation means that their loss of income during what would have been their working life should be appropriately recognised and replaced.

In addition, in a Senate estimates hearing on 26 October last year, the secretary of the Department of Veterans' Affairs conceded the Prime Minister's letter had raised expectations that the government would increase the TPI payment and the TPI Federation made a strong argument for an increase.

The committee recommended the government consider an increase to the TPI payment, with the government to consider the exact level of that increase. However, in response to this inquiry, the Morrison-Joyce government have merely 'noted' that recommendation. This is an absolute slap in the face to our 27,000 TPI veterans, veterans who are receiving less per annum than the minimum wage, veterans who quite rightly wonder why their service pension is reduced based on their partner's income, when, as recognised by a number of reviews, it is supposed to be an income replacement benefit for TPI veterans that is compensation consistent with insurance principles, not welfare. The means testing of this component of the payment against a spouse's income can be seen as a partial transfer of responsibility for paying such compensation from the Commonwealth to that veteran's partner or spouse. Before the 2019 election, the Prime Minister raised the hopes of veterans by commissioning a review into the TPI payment. It turns out that this was yet another announcement with no real delivery for our veterans.

Labor will not stand in the way of these measures, as we want to see some assistance, however modest, for these most deserving former Defence personnel. We know that the Department of Veterans' Affairs, though, is struggling to deal with a huge backlog of TPI pension claims, with 68 per cent of claims yet to be finalised as of April this year. This has now prompted a fresh review of the claims processing system. It's just not good enough. Our veterans have given so much for us. They deserve to be treated better than this. Veterans in my community are very fortunate to have the support of the RSL in Gosnells, the Kelmscott RSL and the Armadale RSL, and I thank them and other service providers in my community for their service to our veterans. But the department and this government should and must do better.

I commend the bill to the House.

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