Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I concur with the former speaker's fine words, and, in the spirit of bipartisanship, I too want to thank the member for Burt, the current veterans' affairs minister, for being in the House to listen to these important speeches. It's not always that a minister is able to be present for all the speeches on a particular bill, but he has made himself available, and I thank him. I also, like the former speaker, want to thank him for addressing the matters I've raised with him and being prompt to take my calls and respond to the conversations that we've engaged in. If this is going to be a measure of his tenure as the veterans' affairs minister, then I'd like to think our veterans are going to be well served, as they always have been. Veterans' affairs has to be, as the previous speaker mentioned, beyond the partisan argy-bargy of politics.

The position of veteran affairs minister is an old one. It's been around since it was called the Minister for Repatriation. Edward Miller first served in that role, from 1917, when the position was inaugurated. He served in that position until 1923. The current veterans' affairs minister is, in fact, the 46th person to serve in that role. It is an important position—and I say that is a fine former veterans' affairs minister, the member for Gippsland, enters the chamber. He knows all too well the importance of our veterans.

Yesterday we heard a fine address-in-reply, an inaugural speech, by the member for Menzies, who, in his concluding remarks, said:

And if we ever lose our map—

he was referring to the building that we are in, the wonderful House of Representatives—

let us stand at the main entrance. At that point you will see a road that draws a long line to names on a wall. These are the names of Australians who traded all their tomorrows so that we may have today.

Of course, he's right. Having just looked at the Australian War Memorial's website, there are 103,000 names on those walls that he mentioned, and they are the bronze roll of honour. They are the names etched into history, etched into immortality. They are the names of those who served and lost their lives in the duty of our nation. Some of them volunteered; some of them were sent, but all of them had that obligation to our nation, to our freedom, to our democracy. We owe them a debt of gratitude, just like we owe a debt of gratitude to those veterans who return from conflict, those veterans who return from peacekeeping missions and those veterans who may never even leave our nation. Many of their names, too, are on the wall of remembrance, the roll of honour, for having made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

The bill before us, the Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package Bill 2022, is an important piece of legislation which is agreed upon by both sides of the chamber. That is so very important. I am a former Minister for Veterans' Affairs as well as a former Minister for Defence Personnel. I served in the role from 20 December 2017 to 5 March 2018, so a hundred years from the time when the position was created. I was not a long time in that role. I was then called upon to do other duties, including the Deputy Prime Minister's role. But, indeed, I knew how important it was, having also been Assistant Minister for Defence and being someone who proudly came from the only inland regional centre in which there were all three arms of defence. I say that because we've got the home of the soldier at Kapooka, the Army Recruit Training Centre, where every recruit does their 13 weeks of basic training. We have march-out parades just about every other Friday, and people—families—come from all over the nation to proudly watch that long line of khaki. It stretches around the parade ground at Kapooka and all the way back to Gallipoli—even before that—and that is not lost on the families and friends of those brave men and women who are Australia's newest Army recruits.

Of course, if you spend any time in the Royal Australian Air Force you will end up at Forest Hill, RAAF Base Wagga Wagga. That is fantastic. It has been in place for many, many decades, and long may it continue. And, of course, we've got a Navy base connected, attached and working alongside Forest Hill. It's also connected, attached and working alongside HMAS Albatross at Nowra, making sure naval officers get an inland experience, Mr Deputy Speaker. We're a long way from the nearest drop of sea water, but at Wagga Wagga we're very proud that we are a garrison city, a tri-service city. That will continue because of the fact that we are spending nearly a billion dollars of infrastructure money on upgrading those two important bases to serve the three important military traditions, navy, air force and army.

In February 2018, when I was the veterans' affairs minister, I introduced the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Veteran-centric Reforms No. 1) Bill 2018. I know how much of a role the member for Gippsland had to play in that particular legislation. It implemented several new initiatives to deliver better services to veterans and their families. It was groundbreaking work that needed to be done and was done, and the benefits are now flowing through our defence communities and through the general community. The bill created a new veteran payment to assist financially vulnerable veterans who have lodged a compensation claim for a mental health condition and are unable to work while their claim is determined. I note the member for Solomon is here too and I thank him for his service to our nation in uniform. Thank you.

But I digress. As I was saying, if you spend a minute in defence, in uniform, you will get free mental health care for life, as you should. Partners of veterans may be eligible for the veteran payment, and veterans with dependant children may be entitled to the maximum rates of family tax benefit part A without being subject to the family tax benefit means test while they receive the veteran payment. At the time, I said that veterans and their families are at the heart of communities around Australia. That has rung true since 1917, when World War I was still being waged in Europe and Africa, and it's just as important today.

Our veterans have supported us. This government, and all governments, are committed to ensuring they receive and have access to the support services they need. Family plays a central role in the veteran's health and wellbeing, and this bill, a veteran-centric bill, will ensure that vital services such as income support and health care help veterans and their families who are transitioning into civilian life.

I know that prime ministers past—Prime Minister Turnbull, Prime Minister Morrison and, indeed, Prime Minister Abbott, and others too—put in place policies to ensure that veterans were looked after when it came to being absorbed back into civilian life and, most importantly, getting jobs. Not every veteran is broken; not every veteran requires the help that other veterans may well need. Veterans are contributing mightily to the nation's workforce and to the nation beyond their uniform lives. That is also very well commended. I thank prime ministers of all political persuasions for making sure that veterans can transition back into civilian life—that they can, after their time of duty is over, make sure that they can contribute for their own wellbeing and, obviously, for the community's wellbeing.

The purpose of this bill before the House is to provide better tailored short-term and targeted support for veterans and their families. It has four key components: it ensures that support payments are exempt from income tax or social security determinations; it ensures that there is expanded flexibility in choosing services to match a veteran's individual needs; it extends eligibility to family members of working-age veterans who are at risk or are in crisis, including the removal of a veteran's requirement for war-like service to have been undertaken; and it continues the harmonisation of veterans' entitlements across the three veteran related acts. These are all important provisions, all vital components and all part of this bill.

The bill is almost identical in scope and cost to the coalition's Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Family Support) Bill 2022, which was introduced in March and which was to have taken effect from 1 July 2022. So I commend the member for Burt, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, for picking this up and running with it. As I said, this is bipartisan and is across the chamber, and I certainly acknowledge that.

The bill establishes a wider group of people who will be eligible for assistance under the Department of Veterans' Affairs' Family Support Package. The $11½ billion that the Commonwealth spends on veterans is a cost—yes. It's a cost to the bottom line, but it's an investment. It is an investment in those people who have served this nation and who deserve every bit of help, every bit of support and every bit of respect that is justifiable, that they are entitled to and that we give. And it's largely uncapped, as it should be, because those veterans who have fallen through the cracks, who may not have previously engaged with the Department of Veterans' Affairs, who may not have sought help and who may not be receiving help, but have suddenly found themselves requiring assistance, should contact the DVA. And if they don't get the help or support that they need in that first phone call then try, try again. I urge and encourage them to do that. Go through one of the wellbeing centres.

I appreciate that Wagga Wagga, my home town, is currently in the throes of trying to establish two, one called Pro Patria, a community driven centre, and another one called the Riverina Veteran Wellbeing Centre. That had an opening of sorts last October. It is modelled on the federally funded veterans' wellbeing centres, such as the recently opened facility in Nowra. The Wagga Wagga centre aims to deliver a range of support services, including physical and mental health, advocacy, education, employment, housing and financial assistance, and I commend Charlotte Webb for her work in ensuring the progress of that.

But I really want to promote the Pro Patria Centre. The Carmelite nuns have offered up their site in North Ashmont to further that particular facility. There are many good community board members on that—David Bardos, Anne Delaney, Paul Fernon, Alan Lean, Brad Maynard, Helen Wheeler, Jason Frost—making sure that they can make a difference for veterans and for first responders as well. Colonel James Hammett, the former commandant of ARTC Kapooka, was an honorary committee member. He was pushing it as well during his time there. He has since moved on, and we thank him for his service to Kapooka. As I said, there are many other community members as well. Lyle Salmon is the chair. There are Jane Barnes, Lachlan Feeny, Dr Jim Read, Angelo Strano, Colin Taggart, and Jackie Van de Velde, all of whom are making a difference, trying to progress that and hoping to get funding. I have had a good, long chat or chats not just with the Minister for Veterans' Affairs but, indeed, with the Deputy Prime Minister, who is also the Minister for Defence.

In relation to that, the former coalition government promising $5 million for a wellbeing centre in Wagga Wagga. It just makes good sense. We've got so many veterans in Wagga Wagga, home of the soldier. Spend any given time in the Air Force and you will end up at Wagga Wagga. It is an important Navy strategic base as well even though we don't generally have a lot of water around the area unless it's flooding, and I'm not sure that HMAS Adelaide will be down the Murrumbidgee River any time soon!

I commend this bill. I again thank the minister for having the foresight, the dedication and the commitment to attend the chamber while people are speaking about this bill. I commend him for the work that he is doing in this space at the present time and wish them all the very best for the future. It's a big role. I also commend the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Sometimes they get a bad rap. By and large they do a very good job, and I know they'll continue to do that on behalf of our veterans.

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