Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

How a nation cares for its veterans and their families is an insight into the character of that nation. As we reflect on the last 120 years, where Australians have gone to distant shores to defend Australia and its interests, we note that more than 100,000 Australians have given their lives wearing our uniform and serving our country. It's right that we remember and honour those people on Remembrance Day and on Anzac Day. I know many Australians have a lot of pride in our Defence Force and in our veterans, and it's always great to see such big turnouts on those two days.

But it's also important that government does its job and looks after veterans and their families, and that process is one that requires constant reform. It's not something that we can just forget about; we have to constantly revisit it as we move forward into the future and as we reconcile with the wars that we've just fought, particularly in the last decade in Afghanistan.

I think it's important to say that things haven't been done well over the last 20 years or so, and that's why the coalition established the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, because veterans and their families deserve truth and accountability. Confidence in the system had broken down. I know this myself, being a veteran and having had to work through my own claim through DVA. I remember testing the system more than five years ago in the minister's office, starting my process there, and it took about four years before it was completed. So I got a sense of what many veterans go through when they encounter DVA.

The royal commission confirmed what families and the veteran community had been saying, and that is that systemic failure requires reform. Everyone here in this House, on both sides, is committed to reform. One of the most significant recommendations was the creation of a permanent, independent statutory oversight body to drive reform and to measure progress. These bills are intended to give effect to that recommendation, and the coalition supports that objective. I support that objective, as a veteran. Independent oversight with real powers, public reporting and parliamentary accountability is essential. I believe in our institutions. I believe in accountability, and nowhere is that more important than in the veteran space.

Establishing the commission through standalone legislation is what the coalition has argued for for a long time. It's what we've argued for from the beginning. The government's original attempt to create the commission through a late amendment to unrelated legislation was rushed and lacked proper consultation. The coalition supported the amended VETS bill to avoid delaying compensation and rehabilitation reforms for veterans, but not because we supported the government's process or the structure. We supported it because we always put veterans first and we saw the need for urgency and the need to get things done. That's why we supported it. We also made it clear at the time that the commission should be established through standalone legislation, separate from Defence and DVA, with stronger independent guarantees. So we moved an amendment to ensure a dedicated Senate inquiry could provide proper scrutiny of the commission model, and that inquiry confirmed widespread stakeholder concern about independence, about its structure, about its powers, about family inclusion and about clarity of remit. This bill is now stronger because of the contributions of those individuals and ex-service organisations, and I want to thank every single person and organisation that took the time to make a submission or to appear before the royal commission and enhance this policy, which is now going to be enacted through this bill.

I also want to make the point here that this is not a new idea from Labor. The coalition introduced legislation to establish an independent National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention back in 2020, more than five years ago. That bill proposed an independent statutory oversight body with the same structural features now being implemented. I want to note in the House that Labor opposed that legislation at the time for political purposes, and, as a result, the establishment of an independent statutory oversight body was delayed. The structure that Labor is now implementing closely mirrors what we proposed back in government. If the coalition's national commissioner model had been supported instead of being opposed by Labor, independent oversight would already be underway. The coalition will support this framework now, because veterans and families cannot afford further delay, but I think it's important that that history should be acknowledged, particularly in the veteran community. Veteran care should not be a political issue. I think it's fair to say that where we land today is bipartisan, but it hasn't been perfect. But we're here, and I think we've come together for veterans and their families, and that's an important message they need to hear from this House.

The coalition will be moving an amendment to bring forward the timing of the first implementation review by the commissioner. As currently drafted, the first assessment is not required to be completed until December 2027. We think that's too slow. It's much too slow. We want to bring that back by 15 months, and our amendment would require the first implementation assessment to be completed by no later than 30 September of this year, 2026. I think that's more than sufficient time to assess whether early-stage reforms are being delivered. I think earlier reporting ensures that veterans, families and parliament can see measurable progress, and it falls in line with our overall objective, which is that the reforms recommended by the royal commission be implemented quickly and assessed openly. I think transparency is absolutely critical here.

In the end, what we care about is our servicemen and servicewomen and their families being cared for. They have to respond quickly when their nation calls. I know many have leave disrupted, particularly over Christmas, whether it's to deploy overseas or indeed to respond to natural disasters. They drop everything for our country. I think it's important that we get on with the job of getting this review done. As our ADF personnel move with a bias for action, I hope that, once this bill is passed, the government will move for a bias for action as well and look after our veterans and their families.

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