House debates

Thursday, 4 December 2008

Questions without Notice

Veterans

2:52 pm

Photo of Craig ThomsonCraig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs. What action has the government taken to assist Australia’s veteran community and what other positions have been taken with respect to this important constituency?

Photo of Alan GriffinAlan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the Member for Dobell for his question. Yes, I am relieved that it was not one with respect to defence, science and personnel. What I can announce to the House and confirm is that the veterans community in Australia at this time, as a result of the ESS payments, will be in possession of some $407 million leading up to Christmas, a time when many of these people are in great need.

In Dobell’s case, I can tell the local member that 3,300-plus pensioners will be in possession of some $4.2 million in the lead-up to Christmas. This is the latest in a series of initiatives from the Rudd government with respect to our veterans community, a community that did it hard for our country at a time when we needed it and have often lived with the aftermath of that with respect to the circumstances of their service.

I contrast this, as I am asked for the position of others on this matter, with the actions of the opposition. Members will recall that the opposition, with respect to pensioner support, came forward initially with the proposal for $30 per week but in fact had excluded veterans from their original proposal. Subsequently, there was a change and that included the situation of single pensioners. But then they got confused again and went forward with an amendment in the Senate which in fact only covered some 35,000 single service pensioners.

It does not stop there. If you go back over the time of the previous government, you will find a number of issues where the previous government dropped the ball and did not really do what was required to deal with the needs of the veterans community. It covered issues of compensation, commemoration and health care. For example, with respect to compensation, one of the most outstanding issues over the time of the Howard government was the method of indexation of disability pensions, particularly TPI and other above special rate disability pensions. After 10 years, after inquiries, after demonstrations, finally, after the then opposition moved forward with a proposal to change that method of indexation, the government of the day, in the shadows of the election, actually moved. That has now been implemented earlier this year.

Then there were the situations with respect to health care. Members will be aware of the concerns around the F111 deseal-reseal issue. I recall attending a meeting as shadow minister last year on the question of the best way forward to deal with those issues, because we knew that new issues were being presented. I had members on my side of the House raising those concerns with me. I committed, as the shadow minister at the time, to a parliamentary inquiry into these issues. That inquiry is now well and truly underway and about to come to a conclusion under the chairmanship of the member for Brisbane. At the time that I made that commitment, the then minister was asked the same question. The then minister refused to act upon the commitment; he refused to give it.

There are also issues around commemoration. One is the battle for Australia Day. As members know, when in opposition we made a commitment to have it declared as a national day of commemoration. That was welcomed by the member for Bradfield—the opposition leader at the time we made the announcement—who indicated that, in fact, we acted accordingly, and I thank him for that. But I do not think we should forget that this proposal was raised repeatedly during the time of the previous government and was rejected repeatedly. The fact is they were not prepared to act at that time.

The other outstanding issue that I will mention in passing relates to the Clarke review. The fact of the matter is the Clarke review was undertaken by the previous government but many recommendations that came down from Justice Clarke were ignored. They were not acted upon. We made a commitment to inquire into that and to review it, and that review is currently underway. I understand that review is now welcomed by the opposition, but let us not forget that for years they did nothing about taking action. We all recall what occurred around the question of the cabinet submission at the time with respect to that issue.

I will finish on one last one: the issue of medallic recognition for bravery at Long Tan. Again, this issue was around for a long time under the previous government and they took no action on it. I congratulate the former minister for having the courage to move forward on that in the shadows of the election. I understand that the inaction of years before was not necessarily his fault. The fact of the matter is that, again, this issue was only acted upon at the last moment. Since the election we have seen confusion from the opposition in this area. We have seen a situation where, belatedly, they have come to accept these and a range of other policies that we brought forward at the election and since the election. I am glad that they now support them, but I think they have to explain to the wider veterans community why they did not support them at the time when they could have done something about it.