Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

Breaking a promise can have dire consequences. When veterans around the country learnt that this Labor government had gone back on its commitment to provide allied health support and to provide psychosocial support, they were rightly concerned and angry. Since yesterday, I have been contacted by thousands and thousands of veterans who are worried. They're worried about what will happen when they fall over, they need a hand up and that hand is no longer there. If you need to see a psychologist and you have a shoulder injury, a knee injury or any other injury on top of that, then your $5,000 cap that this Labor government has put on will be capped out, and you won't be able to get the support you need.

The minister has said: 'You've just got to ring up. You've just got to go to the Department of Veterans' Affairs and put a request in, and you may be able to get some extra help and support.' A person at DVA told me that that could take several months. If you're in a dark place and the only bit of light that you can see is the treatment that you're getting and if that gets taken away, what happens next? You go into a worse place; you self-medicate. And some people may not be able to pull themselves out. This is the reality.

The member for McEwen can interject as much as he wants, but I've sat in that dark place, and we couldn't get pulled out of that place.

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