Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to stand here today in support of this bill, the Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package Bill 2022, which will make a tangible difference in the lives of veterans and their families. Supporting our veterans is a bipartisan effort, and—with the federal government putting forward this legislation, which is almost identical to a bill introduced by the coalition in March—this will only benefit those in need.

The legislation has arisen as a response to recommendations from the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee report The constant battle: suicide by veterans. It laid bare just where we have fallen short in supporting veterans and their families, inflicting further trauma on those who have served our country—stories which have been further heard with the current royal commission into veteran suicide.

Over the past few years, I've met with many veterans and their family members who have felt let down by the lack of support provided to them and their families while in service and after leaving. We have a responsibility to ensure veterans can live their most productive life post service and to support family members of veterans who are at risk or in crisis, along with working-age widowed partners of deceased veterans and former partners. This bill goes a long way towards filling these service gaps, while ensuring support payments for veterans and their families are exempt from income tax and are not included as income for the purpose of social security determinations.

While the government plays a critical role in supporting veterans, generations of dedicated staff and volunteers have also provided mateship, advocacy and welfare services to veterans of all conflicts and defence service families since 1917. This valuable support continues to this day, with 2022 marking 105 years of service provision to Tasmanian veterans and their families—support from veterans' groups like the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia Launceston sub-branch. Since its inception in 1995, members have voluntarily provided gardening and yard maintenance to veterans and their families. Every Tuesday the volunteers converge at the Launceston RSL, ready for a day of providing their time to any war widows or ex-serviceperson who needs assistance in taking care of their lawn or yard.

Also based out of the Launceston RSL is the Launceston veterans hub, whose work is worthy of being in the spotlight, thanks to a group of passionate and dedicated veterans. The Launceston veterans hub in my electorate is now underway and operating, spearheaded by the ever-dedicated retired Major Peter Williams. With a combined effort of lobbying from Peter, and advocacy from me to former coalition minister for veterans' affairs Darren Chester, I was able to secure and deliver $250,000 towards the end of last year, providing the necessary funds for the Launceston RSL to upgrade their facilities, which has allowed for an expansion of services. The hub, located in the RSL, now has the capacity to house compensation and wellbeing advocates, including a full-time wellbeing advocate, who commenced work in Launceston recently. A full-time compensation advocate will be employed soon. The local veterans hub also has Mates4Mates advocates operating out of Launceston and covering the north-west of the state. With the Launceston hub now operational, Peter and the rest of his team are well on their way to establishing their vision of a Tasmanian veterans hub. With more than 17,000 veterans in Tasmania, the goal is to support the wellbeing and betterment of the Tasmanian RSL members, former and serving members of the ADF and their dependents with the provision of welfare and commemorative services, and, where appropriate, to contribute to worthy needs within the community.

On-the-ground and personal experience has led to key learnings for the hub, including that services must be evidence based and provide tangible outcomes to veterans, to lead the way in veteran recovery and family support. Additionally, their learnings have found: that welfare and support teams can best support veterans and their families when we have a cross-section of staff and volunteers with ADF lived experience; that veterans and their families do not easily seek help, and therefore social connection activities are crucial to providing the first step to extend a helping hand without the fear of stigma; the importance of early intervention by staff trained to identify and respond to risk factors associated with suicidal ideation; that regional and local communities are different, and the design of hub-and-spoke locations should be based on data, local knowledge and local needs of veterans and families; and that service needs can change, and therefore the establishment of a continuous quality-improvement process is critical to ensuring services respond to changing needs.

The team has also identified the importance of reducing barriers to improve access to services by veterans and their families, including services through a variety of service delivery models that this bill seeks to address. Peter tells me we have a long and proud history of providing valued welfare support and service delivery to the veteran community within Tasmania. The aim is to encompass the full life cycle of veteran support from the point of Defence Force entry through to transitioning into future civilian life. We continue to work closely with all levels of government and other ex-service organisations to provide ongoing support to the veterans and their families.

The establishment of the veteran hub model specifically aims to address the needs identified in recent studies in Tasmania. The model of service delivery plans to coordinate and co-locate a range of veterans' services to reach as many veterans and their families as possible across Tasmania. They include establishing two regional veterans hubs using existing infrastructure that will be community based and veteran-centric. Having wellness hubs in these locations would also mean that over 98 per cent of current DVA clients would be within 150 kilometres of a veterans hub, which is key to ensuring that veterans have access to services.

Additionally, there are plans to implement a network of community development services that would reach into other regional and rural areas. Other plans include establishing a lead agency to coordinate services and standards for both hubs, and provide the case management and navigational assistance to veterans plus integrating online and telephone services as an extension of the veterans hub.

The Tasmanian hub would also seek to ensure that there is coordinated case management that proactively engages with veterans before the transition from active service. The new service would work actively to improve access to physical and mental health services by providing case management for complex conditions, education and incentives, to increase the number of veteran-friendly service providers and speed access to any relevant compensation.

If the work of this team sounds impressive, it's because it truly is, and the approach taken by Peter and his team is one other states across Australia are looking to emulate. Their model for providing mental health assistance for veterans and their families is one that I believe will see better outcomes for those who are seeking its services.

Central to the model is an intake assessment and support plan to veterans and family members accessing services. Once triaged, care coordinators will co-design with veterans a plan to meet their goals, working together to select the right services to facilitate optimal outcomes. Importantly, this model facilitates coordinated delivery of veterans' support services and consistent case management, offering both core support and ancillary services to veterans and their families.

The hub will work with both support officers and the Department of Veterans' Affairs to incorporate a model of care for high-intensity and acute specialist mental health services to achieve this important third objective of the wellbeing centre program. A wellbeing or compensation advocate will be allocated to guide the veteran or family member through their journey, ensuring they have support to access services, engagement with clinical treatment and beneficial social and recreational liberties. Critically, the support services being provided will be measured with a quality-of-life measurement tool upon commencement and at regular intervals throughout the veteran's support journey.

Those working to develop this know firsthand that the time frames for veterans' or family members' health and wellbeing recovery plans vary depending on needs, individual progress and life complexities. This approach will also allow for care, coordination and service planning, which will include an opt in or opt out for veterans and/or family members that don't want to access care coordination or a service plan. However, the advocates cannot do this work alone, and a major problem faced by veterans seeking an official diagnosis is the lack of available psychiatrists.

DVA accepts psychologists to perform the permanent impairment assessment but insists on a psychiatrist to do the initial diagnosis, and this presents a number of challenges. The department has recommended using a videoconferencing psychiatrist organisation out of Sydney that will provide a diagnosis on the first visit but no treatment. Veteran advocates have raised with me that if the department would accept a diagnosis from a psychologist, bearing in mind that they can request a second opinion, it would greatly assist in the progress and passage of their impending claim. I'm committed to working with the current minister to find a path forward for Tasmanian veterans who are being unfairly impacted by this current situation.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's Final report to theIndependent Review ofPast Defence andVeteran Suicides found that the rate of suicide for ex-serving male veterans was 22 per cent higher than for the general population and for ex-serving female veterans it was 127 per cent higher compared to the general population. We're also aware of the statistics on the impact military life can have on partners and children long after a loved one has left the Defence Force. With the support of services provided through the veteran hubs in Tasmania, combined with the extra support and services outlined in this bill, I'm hopeful of seeing a tangible difference in outcomes for veterans in my state and across the country.

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