Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Richmond for her important question. The Albanese government is focused on delivering for Australia's defence forces, those who are serving and those who have served, and that's including by delivering a veterans and families hub in the Tweed. We've transformed how veterans can access a wide range of support not only to speed up claims processing so they can get that assistance that they need sooner but also to make sure that that assistance is best practice—be it cutting-edge medical treatment, psychosocial supports or community connection. I'm proud that we've been working to better support our Defence people from the day they sign up and throughout their career by making sure that they can better access health care, education and services to set them up for success.

Now, Defence and the Department of Veterans' Affairs are working more closely together to mitigate and ideally prevent illness and injury of all kinds. We want to see that our veteran community is well for longer. When we came into government, though, in 2022, DVA was chronically underfunded and underresourced. This had serious negative real-world consequences for veterans and their families. It meant that, for too long, veterans were not able to access the supports that they needed due to a lack of staffing and a lack of investment into DVA. There had been a revolving door of ministers—six in nine years. This meant that veterans were not getting a fair go from the previous government. They didn't have a true champion in the coalition government.

But I do want to give credit to my immediate predecessor, because the member for Calare, who now sits on the crossbench, did try to turn it around. He called it out, even when he was a member of the coalition government. He said it was a dire situation. He even threatened to resign. He threatened to resign from the same ministry that featured the now leader of the opposition. He pointed out that the former government was only prioritising funding that had a political advantage, and that 'they didn't feel there was a political advantage in funding veterans issues'. While some things change, some things stay the same. The Liberals may change their leader, but they won't change the way that they are. The Albanese government is focused on delivering for our veterans; they are the same old Liberals. They have learned nothing.

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