Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Our veterans matter. This seems obvious, but it is a fact too often forgotten here as the years progress and the memories of war fade. These bills before the House, the Defence and Veterans' Service Commissioner Bill 2025 and the Defence and Veterans' Service Commissioner (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025, are about setting up a permanent independent watchdog to look after our veterans—and what's more important than that? The coalition supports this objective wholeheartedly, and I support it. Veterans have fought for us so we can live in the best country in the world, and some have given the ultimate sacrifice for that.

But we have to be honest about the history, and we must be honest about who has truly stood up for veterans when it mattered. It was a Liberal-National government that established the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. We did it because it was right. We established it because veterans and their families deserved the truth. They deserved accountability. They deserved to know why their system was failing them. We took that step because we recognised a hard truth: too many families had been ignored for too long. Confidence in the system had broken down. We listened to the mothers, the fathers, the partners and the children who had lost their loved ones.

The system was indeed broken, and the royal commission confirmed exactly what those families had been saying. It made clear that if we want lasting reform, if we want to stop these tragedies from happening, we cannot trust departments to mark their own homework. We need independent, system-wide oversight. We need eyes on the problem that are outside of the bubble that is this God-awful Canberra bureaucracy. One of the most significant recommendations from the royal commission was the creation of a permanent independent statutory oversight body—a body to drive reform. That is what these bills intend to do, and that is why the coalition supports them.

However, it is important to put something on the record. This idea of an independent oversight body is not an invention of the Labor Party. In fact, the coalition introduced legislation to establish an independent national commissioner for defence and veteran suicide prevention back in 2020, five years ago. That bill proposed an independent statutory oversight body with basically the same features Labor is implementing today. And what did Labor do in 2020? They opposed that bill. Because of Labor's political games, the establishment of the body was delayed—and that delay matters. It matters because early independent oversight, working alongside the royal commission, could have accelerated system reform. It could have brought earlier accountability to Defence and the DVA. The structure Labor is now implementing closely mirrors what the coalition proposed at the very same time Labor voted against that bill. The coalition will support this framework because veterans and families cannot afford any further delay, but the history should be acknowledged: Labor put politics ahead of veterans' wellbeing five years ago.

While we are debating how to best support our veterans and secure their future, we must look at what Labor is doing to our strategically important Defence assets across Australia. It's important to me because in my electorate of Grey we have three Defence assets: the proof range south of Port Wakefield; the Army base at Cultana; and Woomera, a significant asset to our Western alliances over the past 100 years. We've learned this week that the Albanese Labor government is planning a fire sale of more than 60 Defence properties. They are planning to sell off historic sites like the Victoria Barracks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. They want to sell HMAS Penguin. They want to sell RAAF Base Point Cook. The shadow minister for defence, the member for Hume, has rightly called it what it is, a fire sale. We are currently facing the most dangerous strategic environment in generations. The world is less safe today than it was yesterday. And what is Labor's response? To sell off the assets that support the recruitment, training and retention of ADF personnel.

The RSLs have spoken out, and we should listen to them. RSL National President Peter Tinley puts it perfectly. He said:

But these aren't empty paddocks on a spreadsheet …

He is right. These are places of history. These are places of heritage. These are places that matter to the veterans who marched on those parade grounds. There are 30 RSLs in the electorate of Grey, and they have such an important role for our community. I'd like to give a special shout-out to the RSLs in Port Lincoln, Coober Pedy, Cummins, Port Augusta and Port Pirie for welcoming me into their communities. I'd like to give a special shout-out to the Port Augusta RSL, who, at Anzac Day last year, offered me the first gunfire breakfast. If you don't know what a gunfire breakfast is, it's at 8 am and you have milk and rum—a good way to start the day!

Labor want to sell off the assets that support the recruitment, training and retention of our ADF personnel. They claim that this will raise billions of dollars, but the RSLs have warned that remediation and cleaning up these sites could also cost a fortune, and it could take a decade. We have seen this movie before. We saw failed divestment processes at North Head in Sydney and Portsea in Victoria. We urge the government: do not repeat these mistakes.

The New South Wales Premier is worried about the heritage of Victoria Barracks, the Greens want to turn our military history into housing blocks and the Minister for Defence seems to think that this is only about 'value for money'. Strategic assets are not just about money; they are about capability and they are about history. To sell off these sites without proper scrutiny, without a clear plan and potentially just to plug a hole in the budget or to cover for the government's failures on housing is short-sighted. It is risky. As the RSL said, the headline figure on the sale might look very different when the final accounting is done. The coalition stands with the veterans who are worried about their heritage being sold to the highest bidder, we stand with the communities who want these sites protected, and we stand against a fire sale that treats a national security asset, our national security estate, like a garage sale.

Finally, I want to address the broader context of support for our veterans. We often hear criticism from those opposite, but let's look at the record. When the Liberal-National coalition was in government, the portfolio of veterans' affairs was given cabinet status. That is a clear indication of respect. It shows that veterans' issues were at the heart of government decision-making. The coalition also delivered more than $11 billion every year in support for veterans and their families. We introduced and passed the Australian Veterans' Recognition (Putting Veterans and Their Families First) Act 2019. We created the veterans' covenant, the veteran card and the lapel pin. We ensured that there was proper national recognition for service and, indeed, sacrifice. We made sure that business and the community could say thank you in a practical way. We provided free non-liability mental health care—this was a game changer. We said that, for any veteran who completed at least one day of full-time service, mental health care was free. We removed the barriers. We didn't ask for paperwork first; we offered help.

We expanded and modernised Open Arms—Veterans & Families Counselling. We made sure it was fit for purpose and accessible for everyone who needed it. We initiated the Psychiatric Assistance Dog Program. Veterans lives have been saved by these dogs. This program is now supporting hundreds of veterans across Australia with tailored, life-changing therapy dogs, and this was a coalition initiative. We established the Prime Minister's Veterans' Employment Award to celebrate employers who hire veterans. We helped ADF personnel transition into civilian careers. We launched the Veteran Wellbeing Centre Program, which put bricks and mortar into communities.

We delivered support hubs in Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Albury-Wodonga, Nowra, Tasmania, South-East Queensland and Townsville. They are places where veterans can go for help, to meet mates and to find support. We created the role of the veterans family advocate. We ensured that the voices of families, often the unsung heroes of service, were heard in every major political decision. We committed $500 million to the Australian War Memorial redevelopment, and what an amazing asset it is. It's so important that younger people can come to the nation's capital and understand the history of what the Aussie diggers did for the beautiful, prosperous society that we have today. We ensured that the stories of contemporary veterans, our modern diggers, are told with the same respect and visibility as the Anzacs of old.

We established the Joint Transition Authority to hold Defence accountable. We delivered provisional access to medical treatment so veterans didn't have to wait for claims to be assessed before seeing a doctor. We increased fees for health professionals to keep doctors in the system. We boosted staffing at DVA to speed up claims and we even added a question in the census to track the number of veterans in Australia, so we finally know where our veterans are and what they need. That is a record to be proud of. It is a record of action, not just words. The coalition stands with our veterans. We stand with their families. We will continue to fight for a system that is transparent, fair and respectful of the service and sacrifice of every Australian who has worn that uniform.

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