Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently, I met with members of Blue Mountains veterans groups, who raised with me the challenge they face in finding and funding premises suitable for meetings, training, administration and advocacy on behalf of the veterans community in the mountains.

Many veterans organisations, and even the DVA itself, currently use Legacy House at Springwood for meetings, training and a variety of purposes. These organisations have combined under a hub arrangement through a memorandum of understanding with Legacy to meet the criteria for funding under BEST. Legacy House in Springwood is ideal as a veterans meeting and advocacy hub, but there are urgent lease issues which need to be resolved. They have been told they cannot have money for an operating lease but that the department is happy to pay out the lease. It seems incongruous to me that the DVA is happy to provide funds to pay out the lease so that the veterans groups can move to other premises—if they could find them—but are not prepared to pay to secure the premises for the next few years, a more effective use of limited funds.

As at March 2010 the Blue Mountains veterans community includes 2,208 DVA beneficiaries, two RAAF bases—several thousand personnel—and many ex-service personnel and their families who access the services that the veterans groups provide. The Blue Mountains veterans, ex-service personnel and serving personnel constitute a defined community of interest. Much of the funding support for veterans organisations comes from the Department of Veterans' Affairs program Building Excellence in Support in Training, BEST, but funding has been progressively scaled back by the Labor government. The government justifies the reduction in funding by saying that there are fewer veterans every year and, therefore, funding is being reduced proportionately. Perhaps if the Labor government were not so reckless with their spending there might have been adequate funding available to assist veterans. A review into BEST and TIP funding was undertaken, and I note that on page 25 of the 2010 review report it states:

Of course, the Review team acknowledges that there will likely always be the need to provide BEST support for smaller ESOs in more isolated areas where limited local funding or other support is available.

In the Blue Mountains there are limited opportunities for meeting room accommodation and limited opportunities to raise local funds. I call on the minister to consider the Blue Mountains veterans community on a case-by-case basis and to assist them with adequate, long-term funding to secure tenure in Legacy House at Springwood. This will give the veterans community somewhere permanent and suitable to conduct their services. They do the work in the community that the government does not do, and they should be supported. Why should these veterans, after making such sacrifices, now have to battle with the Labor government to achieve something so simple?

During my time as shadow minister for veterans' affairs, the coalition committed an additional $7.5 million to BEST. The Labor government cut $8 million from the funding, making it so much harder for veterans organisations in the circumstances I have described above to continue their outstanding work on behalf of veterans, ex-service and serving personnel and their families.