Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on the Veterans' Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Bill 2024. This legislation represents the most significant structural reform to veterans compensation and rehabilitation laws in a generation. The current tri-act framework, commonly known as VEA, DRCA and MRCA, is an historical legacy of decades of piecemeal change on top of a century of various veterans entitlements legislation. Veterans' claims for benefits and support are assessed under three pieces of legislation. Often veterans have claims under all three acts. Typically many Vietnam veterans are covered by VEA and DRCA, while more recent Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have come under MRCA. This makes the current compensation system convoluted, complicated and difficult to understand and leads to inequities between the various acts.

Naturally, legislative reform and simplification has been long talked about. Those opposite refused to do this when they were last in government, during nine years. As the former shadow minister for veterans' affairs, I asked the member for Gippsland when he was the minister to do this. We took this policy to the last election, not matched by those opposite. It takes a bit of chutzpah to talk about this and speak on this bill when he refused to do this when he was the minister and I asked him to do it. We took this policy to the last election. We said that we would put this legislation before the chamber. It is before the chamber because of a Labor government when, after nine years, the coalition refused to do it. They just plain outright refused to do it. So I'm pleased to see that this Labor government is doing it. We saw the need to streamline and consolidate the legislation. We saw this as a high priority for a Labor government.

I recall the issue gaining traction with the release of the 2019 Productivity Commission report A better way to support veterans not long after the 2019 election, when I became the shadow minister. This report found the veterans compensation and rehabilitation system was complicated, hard to navigate, inequitable and poorly administered. Basically, the system was broken, not fit for purpose and in need of fundamental reform. For three years, whilst they had two ministers, the member for Calare and the member for Gippsland, the coalition did absolutely nothing to fix this problem. Then more research studies on the mental health impacts of the system began to emerge, along with, tragically, reports of veterans committing suicide after battling that same system. I could name them, but I've talked about them publicly many times before. Mothers are still dealing with this issue, people like Julie-Ann Finney, Karen Bird and others, who courageously fought for a royal commission when those opposite had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do it. They did everything they could to stop a royal commission but eventually had to do it after the outcry from advocates like Julie-Ann, Karen and others, when even their own backbench was supporting it.

The first recommendation made by the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide in its 2022 interim report was for urgent action to simplify and harmonise veteran compensation and rehabilitation legislation. The royal commission said the current system is 'so complicated that it adversely affects the mental health of some veterans and can be a contributing factor to suicidality'. This complexity has also directly contributed to delays, inconsistent processing, uncertain outcomes and backlogs in claims. For nine years those opposite sat there and did nothing on this area. They mouthed platitudes and on it went to Anzac Day, where they laid wreaths and did nothing but allow it to continue.

The complexity and underresourcing saw the Albanese government inherit a backlog of 42,000 veterans claims that had not even been looked at—not even looked at! That backlog has now been cleared and all new claims have been looked at within 14 days of lodgement. It is now taking on average 55 days to process initial liability claims to decision. There has been a turnaround and a huge improvement. If you don't believe me, look at the evidence given by the member for Calare to the royal commission and at what he said publicly. He threatened to resign as minister before the budget. He sat there and threatened to resign the weekend before the budget because those opposite had failed to provide enough money to clear the backlog. These are not my words; this was the then Minister for Veterans' Affairs. The system is still too complex and that is why the legislation we are debating today needs to be enacted. The royal commission called on the government to act and, through this legislation, we have. These reforms will deliver systems that will be easier for veterans and families to understand. Importantly, the legislation will enable the Department of Veterans' Affairs to process claims quicker so the veterans' community can receive the assistance they need in a timely matter. No veteran will be worse off as a result of this legislation.

Under the vets bill before the chamber, all new compensation claims from 1 July 2026 will be dealt with under a single piece of legislation, an improved MRCA—if you want to call it that—regardless of where or when the veteran served. Enhancements to the MRCA in the vets' bill will include a new payment for severely impaired veterans of pension age, harmonised support for household and attendant care and improved payments for those travelling for treatment. In addition, the funeral reimbursement amount of about $14,000 will be expanded to all service related deaths, and the funeral allowance for other veterans' deaths will increase to $3,000. This was not done by those opposite when they had the opportunity during nine years.

The bill also opens up gold card eligibility to veterans previously excluded from access, such as some of our national servicemen. I am very pleased to see the critical safeguards in the bill, including grandparenting of existing arrangements so that there will be no change in compensation payments currently being received by veterans, and current payment rates will be maintained and indexed under the current system. Importantly, if a veteran is currently receiving benefits under the existing scheme, that will continue unaffected. This is a key feature of the new model that is designed to provide certainty to veterans and their families. I note that, in this year's federal budget, it is backed up by money—$220 million of veterans and family entitlements across two years from the commencement of this legislation, ensuring veterans and families can better understand and access the support they deserve. The budget showed that our work in properly resourcing DVA to hire more than 500 additional permanent front-line staff to clear the backlog we inherited, which was a key feature of our election commitment—which I announced, by the way—has been done and would see an additional $6.5 billion in delayed benefits and support flowing to veterans and their families over the five-year period. Also, a commencement date of 1 July 2026 will ensure that the veterans community will be well informed of these important changes and what it means for them, and will provide enough time for individuals to consider their circumstances.

I want to thank the commissioners on the royal commission for the thorough and compassionate job they did. I want to praise Julie-Ann Finney, Karen Bird and so many others. I also want to acknowledge another person. Having worked in recent years with a number of veterans who reported experiencing sexual assault or abuse during their service and who had to fight both Defence and DVA for recognition and justice, I know there's a serious issue that needs to be addressed. I want to acknowledge Jennifer Jacomb, the secretary of the Victims of Abuse in the ADF Association, who was a tireless advocate in this area. Jennifer was well known to many people in this place, across the halls of parliament. Sadly, Jennifer lost her battle with cancer on 9 September this year—ironically, on the same day the royal commission's final report was released. Jennifer will be greatly missed, and I'll miss our conversations. Vale, Jennifer.

The royal commission did a thorough investigation. The government is now carefully considering the recommendations of the final report and has undertaken to respond before the end of the year. We've engaged in extensive consultation. The current Minister for Veterans' Affairs held a number of consultation sessions around the country, including earlier this year in my electorate of Blair, in Ipswich, where the future Ipswich Veterans' and Families' Hub was one of the key election commitments we made. It was terrific to welcome him back in March this year to announce more than $5 million going to RSL Queensland to lead the establishment of the hub, in consultation with Mates4Mates and GO2 Health.

He was back in June to consult further, and we visited the Wounded Heroes Australia Veterans Centre in Ipswich to see the outstanding work done on the front line by its CEO, Martin Shaw, and his volunteers. I want to thank them for that. I was delighted that the minister announced late last year that Wounded Heroes Australia would receive a $1.1 million veteran wellbeing grant to update the veterans centre at Bundamba and purchase a new vehicle to transport veterans. Wounded Heroes Australia fills a gap in the veteran support space, providing rapid crisis assistance for the vulnerable veterans and their families who are doing it tough, and its interventions have probably prevented many suicides over the years. So they are really complementing the work that the RSL is doing and the response to the royal commission.

In closing, we promised to act, and we have. This bill is a huge step forward for Australia's veteran community and will benefit our current and serving personnel for generations to come. I commend the bill to the chamber.

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