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

Today it was my pleasure as co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Veterans, along with Senator Andrew Mclachlan CSC, to welcome the Families of Veterans Guild to Parliament House, many of whom are up in the gallery today. I want to thank Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel Matt Keogh, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs Darren Chester and Greens Spokesperson for Defence and Veterans' Affairs Senator David Shoebridge, as well as my good friend Luke Gosling MP, Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans' Affairs and Northern Australia, and all my parliamentary colleagues who attended the roundtable.

Today's discussion was to launch the results of the 2025 Veteran Families Survey, which will be extremely important in aiding us to deliver better outcomes for Defence families and veterans. I especially want to thank Barbara, Jodie, Shiela and Kelly for your extremely moving personal stories of the lived family experience of those living within the dynamic of someone who has served. You all helped to bring the words on a page to life and provided deep meaning to this report. I thank Renee Wilson and Tricia Hobson, CEO and chair of the Families of Veterans Guild, respectively, for their hard work with this report and for bringing this roundtable to parliament.

To all of you: your hard work continues to ensure that the dial moves in the right direction when support is needed most for those we love. Thank you very much.

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