Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Science) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 2) Bill 2025. At the outset, the opposition supports the passage of this bill. We do so because these amendments are necessary to ensure the successful implementation of the veterans reform framework and to allow the transition to a single, simplified compensation and rehabilitation system to operate effectively from 1 July 2026.

For too long, veterans and their families have been forced to navigate a fragmented system spread across multiple acts of parliament, each with different rules, thresholds and processes. The coalition supported the royal commission's interim recommendation to simplify and harmonise these arrangements precisely because complexity creates stress, confusion and, all too often, injustice. That is why we supported the primary reform legislation and why we continue to support the objective of a single ongoing framework under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act. A unified scheme has the potential to reduce duplication, improve consistency in decision-making and make entitlements, claims and review pathways easier—not harder but easier—for veterans and their families to understand and access.

This bill is largely technical and consequential in nature, but these amendments—well, they matter. They go to how the system functions in practice, how fairness is preserved, and how confidence is maintained during what is a significant transition. The bill clarifies review and appeal rights under the new framework, ensuring veterans retain access to internal reconsideration and external merits review through the Veterans' Review Board, with onward appeal pathways preserved. It establishes clearer rules for claims and decisions that straddle the transition date, reducing legal uncertainty and the risk of inconsistent outcomes.

The bill also addresses important practical matters, including dependent compensation where death occurs after the transition date but relates to earlier service; the application of funeral benefits; education assistance for students and dependants; impairment and additional disablement payments; and the preservation of allowances and decoration payments so that recognition based support continues uninterrupted. These are precisely the kinds of details that matter deeply to veterans and families, particularly at times of illness, loss or transition. However, it must be said that this is now the second miscellaneous measurements bill required to complete or correct the government's original reform package. Quite simply, it's just not good enough. These provisions are not new or unexpected. They are core implementation details that should have been resolved in the primary legislation. Veterans, their advocates and their families deserve certainty and stability in the law, not rolling fix-up bills. Legislative patchwork risks undermining confidence in a system that reform was meant to simplify.

While the opposition will not stand in the way of amendments that protect entitlements and ensure the framework works as intended, we will continue to hold the government to account for incomplete legislative delivery. The opposition has moved an amendment to remove the mandatory legislative requirement to notify the Chief of the Defence Force when a serving member lodges a Veterans' Review Board application or accesses non-liability healthcare. We strongly believe that decision should rest with the serving member, not be hardwired into legislation. Automatic notification to the Chief of the Defence Force risks reinforcing perceptions of career risk and stigma, particularly around mental health. Evidence before the royal commission made clear that some ADF members delay or avoid seeking care because they fear the impact on deployability or career progression. Simply from a wellbeing and suicide prevention perspective, encouraging early, trusted access to care must be paramount. Legislative settings should reduce barriers, not create new perceived risks. Defence will still be able to access operationally necessary information through existing mechanisms or with the member's consent where required.

On Monday, many of us in this place attended the Last Post Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial. During the ceremony, it was noted just how important it is that this parliament maintains a direct line of sight to the War Memorial. We in this place have the power to send our men and women in uniform into harm's way, and with that power comes an enduring responsibility to use our authority to properly support our defence personnel and to really care for our veterans. It was a really deeply moving reminder that our obligations to those who serve do not end when the uniform comes off. They continue in the systems that we build, the laws that we pass and the way we treat veterans and defence personnel throughout their lives, particularly when they are at their most vulnerable. The coalition record reflects that commitment, from establishing the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide to delivering non-liability mental healthcare, strengthening Open Arms, recognising service through the Veterans' Covenant, investing in wellbeing centres and important transition support and, I'd say, the creation of the Australian War Memorial itself.

Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the men and women in uniform who I recently had the pleasure of meeting at RAAF Base Pearce and HMAS Stirling, which I'm sure the deputy chair is quite interested in. It indeed was a privilege to speak with so many people on that day, particularly the young personnel who are just starting out on their careers and are enjoying their careers in the ADF, a career which offers incredible opportunities, skills and pathways for those who choose to serve.

So, to our sailors, our soldiers and our Air Force personnel: we hear you, we see you, and you matter. Our ADF men and women do an extraordinary job, often away from their families, and they deserve our respect and our support—real support, not tricky legislation but real support that helps them when they are in need. That is the lens through which we approach this bill. We support it because it is necessary, but we will continue to push for legislation that puts veterans and defence personnel first, not just in principle but in practice. I thank the House.

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