Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The government is working to ensure that we provide more support for veterans. Those who have served our nation deserve our utmost respect and the support of government. Unfortunately, in recent years many veterans have had a difficult time when dealing with the Department of Veterans' Affairs because the previous government put a staffing cap on the number of people who were working to process claims in that department. That led to the deterioration of the mental health of many veterans, which resulted in the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, which has made some recommendations. No. 1 among those recommendations is the removal of that staffing cap and the employment of more people to process claims in the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and that is exactly what the Albanese Labor government is doing. We are getting on with the job of making sure there is more support for veterans, with more funding in the budget to support those who served our nation.

This legislation, the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 2) Bill 2023, is another element of our support for the veteran community. The bill introduces a series of technical amendments within the portfolio. Specifically, it aids ADF firefighters who served before 2004 by addressing the fact that they faced the same or greater threats as their civilian counterparts. This bill modifies the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act, or DRCA as it's more commonly known, to match provisions for ADF firefighters with those of their civilian colleagues. It cuts the qualifying period for a firefighter's employment to be considered a significant factor in the development of oesophageal cancer from 25 years to 15 years, aligning it with their counterparts in the civilian firefighting force. The wording of the act will change to not require that firefighting form a substantial part of the person's duties. Instead the new criteria will consider it as a 'not insubstantial part' for the presumption of the contribution to be valid. These amendments will simplify the process for ADF firefighters to seek acknowledgement and support for those conditions.

We're also changing a number of employment programs. The second schedule of the legislation aligns the Veterans' Entitlements Act with existing provisions under the Social Security Act. This ensures that any income that veterans and their partners earn from certain employment programs won't count towards the income test for support means-testing. As a result, veterans and their partners can benefit from those employment programs without it affecting their eligibility for financial support under the Veterans' Entitlements Act. The third schedule of the bill aligns the Veterans' Entitlements Act with existing provisions under the social security legislation. As a result, veterans and their partners who are stuck overseas temporarily, due to unforeseen circumstances, will be able to receive rent assistance for more than 26 weeks. This change eliminates the existing discrepancy, ensuring that veterans and their partners can receive the same rent assistance as civilians in similar situations.

We're also expanding acute support package eligibility. We're extending the Defence, Veterans And Families Acute Support Package to aid more families in the veteran community. This initiative offers robust support in times of crisis. With services such as child care, counselling for adults and children, household assistance and wellbeing support, we aim to bolster family units and support them. Since its inception in October 2022, the package has been available to families of working-age veterans and widowed partners. We're clarifying the eligibility criteria to include grandparents who provide full-time care for children of deceased veterans. Our aim remains to provide unwavering support to service personnel and veterans and their families, ensuring those in a crisis can maintain that continuity of support. Quite often we hear, and we understand and we know, the challenges that serving ADF personnel and veterans face, but we often don't hear and comprehend the challenges that their families face as well. This government is keen to work with organisations like Defence Families Australia to ensure that service personnel's families and veterans' families are heard when it comes to policies of support, and this policy is one step towards achieving that goal.

In the budget, we committed an additional $328.1 million to building on the previously invested $537½ million to bolster the services available to the 340,000 veterans and dependants who use the Department of Veterans' Affairs. This investment aims to decrease the veteran compensation claims backlog, a problem that, as I said at the beginning, has been there for quite some time. We're allocating $64.1 million over 2023-24, to retain over 480 dedicated DVA staff who will work on delivering frontline services, and $254 million over four years to modernise the outdated and ageing IT services. It's hoped that that investment in new IT capability will help with the processing of those DVA claims and the speeding up of those claims approvals, which is vitally important to the wellbeing of veterans into the future. It will ensure timely payments and more accessible services for veterans and families.

We're also expanding the acute support package, as I mentioned, to include grandparents and carers. This package recognises the unique challenges faced by these families and provides them with support. Furthermore, we're funding essential support programs, including $2 million for mental health awareness and suicide intervention training for volunteers working with veterans.

These measures accompany our ongoing reforms aimed at simplifying the complex century-old veteran compensation system. I and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs have been conducting consultations with veterans and veterans advocacy groups across the country, and we've covered all of the capital cities and all of the garrison towns throughout Australia, asking veterans and their advocacy groups and family members what their view of the legislation is and how it can be improved. It's been rewarding to hear the feedback from veterans about the government implementing that recommendation from the royal commission to simplify and rationalise veterans' entitlement legislation. In all of the consultations where I've asked veterans whether or not the government is on the right track with this proposal, the feedback has been positive, and people have said that they believe that the government is on the right track and that the system is too complicated. Veterans having to pay advocates to lodge claims on their behalf for injuries that they sustained in the service of our nation is something that should not happen. With this reform simplifying and rationalising that legislation, we hope that the need for veterans to employ advocates will be removed and that they will be able to apply for the support that they deserve by themselves and get timely processing of claims and, more importantly that they understand how the system works and what they are and are not entitled to.

Our Defence Force personnel and veterans and their families give so much in the service of our nation, and we believe that it's time that they got the support that they deserve. That is why we're investing more in the Department of Veterans' Affairs, employing more people to support veterans, reducing the backlog of claims, modernising the IT system, rationalising veterans affairs legislation and supporting veterans through important initiatives such as this.

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