Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank those who have acknowledged me and others in the parliament who have served in our Australian Defence Force. Across the parliament and across the chambers, we support our men and women in uniform and the sacrifices they and their families have made. We want to make sure that they get the best possible deal. As the Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans' Affairs and Northern Australia, I have the enormous privilege to meet with defence members and veterans across this country. And, as a fourth-generation veteran, I am proud of the contribution that my family has made to the defence of our country.

Every day I talk to veterans and share their achievements and assist them with any challenges. I concur with the contributions of so many who have pointed out the fact that veterans are incredibly capable people and vital to the future of our nation and to upholding the sovereignty of our nation. I only have to think back to Darwin on the weekend, when veteran mates across our city played a helpful, calming role. Those in the emergency services obviously also played an active role. But the veterans who are walking the streets with a chainsaw, helping out their neighbours, are just one small example of how vital veterans are in our communities. That's what the ADF does. It provides Australian citizens with the opportunity to be trained up in one of our services, to manage risk, to lead under arduous conditions and to defend our homeland and our interests overseas. Every defence member, having made that solemn and sacred commitment to the nation and to the Australian people, should feel safe in the knowledge that, whatever may happen in their service, they and their families will be looked after and, indeed, acknowledged by a grateful nation.

It is our nation's duty to empower and support the mental health and wellbeing of our defence and veteran community. There is an expectation from the Australian people that they will be looked after. I lobbied hard with the minister, who is in the room; with our prime minister, who was the then opposition leader; and with veterans and their families, particularly those family members who have lost loved ones by suicide. We worked with those supporters of a royal commission, and the current Prime Minister committed to a royal commission from opposition, and, now in government, we are implementing the recommendations. The interim report was released a couple of years ago, in 2022. It contained recommendations that were deemed most urgent so that we could start getting after those recommendations. We have acted on them all, and that is a credit to the minister.

We have cleared the backlog of unallocated compensation claims at DVA, which was causing a lot of angst, so that new claims are reviewed within 14 days. We have legislation the VETS Act, the Veterans' Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Act, which harmonises legislation and simplifies the compensation system, and that is a good thing.

See this speech in context