Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill 2022. On indulgence, I would like to acknowledge a couple of fellow vets in the chamber: the member for Menzies, who is my co-chair in the parliamentary friends of veterans group, and the former chair of the group, the member for Solomon, who are in the chamber with me whilst I give this speech.

This bill is yet another example of the Albanese Labor government's following through on an election commitment. This election commitment is one part of Labor's plan to address the pressures our veterans are experiencing. If passed, this bill will come into effect on 1 January 2023. New applicants to the scheme from that day onward will be able to take advantage of the provisions of the bill, many of which I'll outline broadly. The bill will also allow applicants who are veterans to reapply where they were previously refused a subsidy certificate because they had not completed their qualifying service period or they had made their application outside of the five-year post-separation limit.

At its core, the bill fulfills Labor's election commitment to boost homeownership for defence members and veterans. This is at a time when we know veterans are amongst the fastest growing groups experiencing homelessness. According to the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, veterans comprise 5.6 per cent of our total homeless, with an average of 6.3 years of sleeping rough or in other forms of emergency accommodation. This over-representation is a true mark of shame for this country.

This plan involves several key elements, many of which are already underway through legislation before the parliament or funded through budget measures. Other measures include the delivery of veteran wellness hubs, one of which is to be located in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, namely in my electorate of Spence. This bill amends the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Act 2008, expanding the eligibility criteria for the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme as part of the ADF's recruitment and retention package.

The Australian National Audit Office have produced a number of reports concerning the Australian Defence Force and its ability to recruit and retrain personnel. The main audits occurred in 2000 and 2003. The latter used a line that sticks with me:

Expenditure on retention has the potential to be much more cost effective than expenditure on recruitment and training.

The Australian Defence Force is an employer, though not one like many others. It doesn't have competitors in the traditional sense but it does have competitors for its human capital. Whether it's mining companies poaching members for their skill sets, such as driving heavy vehicles, or airlines poaching members of the RAAF, this is competition just the same. And, just like that, the money that was invested to train that ADF member will now benefit a private employer. It goes without saying that it is often far cheaper in the long run to keep personnel you've invested time and resources into, upskilling them further over time, than to start afresh after attrition has set in, requiring you to fill vacancies rather than expand capacity. This bill definitely moves things further in the right direction. If this encourages someone to think twice before responding to a headhunter looking for highly skilled and highly trained employees, then it is money well spent.

Without going through the bill clause by clause, I will highlight some of the operative clauses for the sake of brevity. The main change is the proposed minimum service periods one needs in order to access the various tiers of subsidies through the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme. This means that a permanent member would need to have served a minimum of two, four and eight years for tiers 1, 2 and 3 respectively. For tiers 1 and 2, this threshold has been halved. For reserve members, however, that minimum service level is now down from eight years to four years, 12 years to eight years, and 16 years to 12 years for tier 1, 2 and 3 subsidies respectively—a marked improvement.

It is no secret that housing affordability is one of the biggest issues and challenges that we need to tackle. This bill aims to do so in a measured way with a dual purpose. This is a bill that aims to assist those at all ends of their time in the Australian Defence Force. This bill aims to make life easier for current-serving, permanent ADF members, reservists and veterans alike. The bill allows veterans to apply for their final subsidy through this scheme, at any time that suits them, after separating from the ADF. This is a big step forward in assisting veterans to adjust to civilian life without being bogged down with administrative hurdles.

These provisions pair well with others in the bill that ensure that, in the event of a genuine error, mistake or accident occurring—such as transferring funds into a loan account by mistake—the subsidy would still be paid. This is more of a human approach and one that many veterans have approached me to indicate seldom occurs from any form of government initiative, department or scheme. We are at least making some progress now.

There is a reason why this is of significance. Within my state of South Australia, the division of Spence contains the largest number of DVA clients, including families, to a fairly clear extent. My electorate of Spence hosts Royal Australian Air Force Base Edinburgh, or RAAF Base Edinburgh, where many currently serving Defence Force members perform vital functions to keep us safe. On indulgence, I'd like to thank all of our defence personnel across the country for their service. On the other side of the coin, concerning defence personnel, many ADF members have established roots within the local community after realising that their duties at RAAF Base Edinburgh are to continue for a number of years. We know that on census night 1,316 permanent Australian Defence Force members and 284 reservists were in Spence. This number is dwarfed by the 4,487 veterans in Spence, people who have previously served in the Australian Defence Force. That is 6,000 people in my electorate who either are serving or have served. This number doesn't begin to count their respective families, either, and with the expected expansion of RAAF Base Edinburgh slated for the not too distant future, it is perfectly logical to deduce that the number of active defence personnel within Spence is only likely to rise.

Despite all the talk about Labor's veterans' policy in the lead-up to the election, I'm glad that, no matter what stage of the sitting week we are in and no matter the volume of controversial and hard-fought legislation and motions in this place, it is heartening that we are able to safely assume that, despite whatever else that is happening, we can stand united across the chamber on matters involving improving the quality of life and living standards of veterans and defence personnel in this country. It is in this spirit that I'd like to thank the member for Sturt for his contribution on this bill last night. It was an excellent contribution to this debate, and it was great to see one of my fellow South Australians in this place echoing very similar sentiments to my own concerning an issue that is very important to my heart.

In the relatively short time since my election to this place, I have thoroughly enjoyed my dealings with the local defence and veterans communities. In fact, after the conclusion of this sitting week I will be holding a roundtable with local veterans groups concerning the progress of our veterans wellness hub. The success of our upcoming event remains to be seen. However, the success of the previous event in Spence for the veterans wellness hub could not have enjoyed such a high level of success had it not been for the attendance and involvement of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel, the member for Burt, and the Assistant Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the member for Kingsford Smith. The assistance and guidance provided by you both, along with your respective offices, have helped me to engage with local veterans groups in the knowledge that the Albanese Labor government really does intend to follow through with its election commitments and with its assistance to veterans. I'd also like to thank the member for Blair for his assistance back when I was merely a candidate who had only recently been preselected. Those three members are proof to me that this government cares strongly about its men and women serving in the Australian Defence Force and those who once served in the ADF.

We know full well that we have to do our part to serve those who have served and those who continue to serve. Anything less would be a loss of faith, one that the heart of our nation should not endure. I am confident that this bill is going to make a great deal of a difference to the lives of many Australian Defence Force members, reservists, veterans and their families, and for that I commend this bill.

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