Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Mr Trevor Lawrence, a volunteer veterans pension and welfare officer, has raised with me that Dobell currently has 2,642 DVA clients. He advised me there are long and arduous waiting periods in regard to requesting and obtaining records from the Department of Defence and the Department of Veterans' Affairs to help facilitate the claims. Will the minister update the House on how the processing of claims will be improved to help our veterans obtain faster access to benefits?

Mr Albanese interjecting—

Ms Macklin interjecting—

Mr Robb interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler, the member for Jagajaga and the Minister for Trade and Investment will cease interjecting. I am struggling to hear the question.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dobell, especially for her care and concern for the 2,600-odd veterans in her electorate. She is right; claims are an issue. Last financial year the department dealt with 21,833 claims. If you look at the three bodies of legislation the department deals with: firstly MRCA, the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, has an average of 109 days to finalise a claim. This is better than three years ago where it was 155 days. It is a 30 per cent improvement under this government, but we still have some way to go. Secondly, under the Veterans' Entitlements Act it is 72 days on average for a claim, which is, again, better than 2012-13 when it was 79 days. And, thirdly, under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, or SRCA, it is still 140 days for claims to be processed, which is again a 20 per cent improvement on what it was in 2012-13 when it was 171 days.

The government has achieved a 10 to 30 per cent productivity benefit in terms of processing claims, but we still have a fair way to go. It is still not good enough in my view that a MRCA claim takes over 100 days, and a SRCA claim, indeed, over 100 days. The government has instructed the Department of Veterans' Affairs along six lines of effort to begin to deal with this particular issue. The first line is to change the way Veterans' deals with its clients to become very veteran-centric rather than claim-centric. At present, if you put a claim under three acts, you get three letters spat out to you. There is no one consolidated view of the veteran within the department. We are going to change that.

Secondly, we are seeking to embark upon a wholesale upgrade of the department's computer systems. The computing in the department is between 10 and 30 years old, some of it, while we were playing pacman, others while Brock was racing around Mt Panorama. Unless we replace the computing, we cannot get a client-centred view of the veteran. Thirdly, the focus on there will allow us to change business processes to allow claim times to come down.

The last three lines of effort the department will work on to begin to address this issue that the member for Dobell has raised—issues that are part of what this government was left to solve—have to deal with focus and priorities on rehabilitation, on mental health and on transition. Two years ago the Department of Veterans' Affairs only knew about one out of every five soldiers, sailors or air men or women leaving the Defence Force. We are now moving to connect systems together so that when you join the ADF you will join the Department of Veterans' Affairs. There will be full clarity on exactly who the client's base will be.

There will continue to be a focus on rehabilitation. Of the 316,000 clients, only 2,000 are in rehab now, we need to increase that number. And we will continue to fund the non-liability mental health care programs so that all of our veterans have access to good quality mental health care. (Time expired)