Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have previously spoken on the outstanding work of the Veterans' Centre Sydney Northern Beaches located at the Dee Why RSL Club in my electorate and I am delighted to do so again. On Monday last week I attended and addressed a forum on the future of assisting veterans and their dependants, which was attended by representatives of over 32 ex-service organisations, all with a commitment to working collaboratively with better support for our veterans.

Since the centre's opening in October last year, it has continued its work in providing support to veterans and their families with an expansion in their operations and a focus on improving service delivery capacity. The purpose of the forum was to provide a presentation by Ben Webb, the centre manager, on the case management software implemented by the centre. He was joined by a representative from the contracted provider of the software. This presentation focused on the benefits of a shared database between ex-service organisations and pension and welfare officers in order to deliver streamlined services to the veterans community. The presentation showcased the capabilities of the software package which will enable better tracking of cases across different organisations.

With so many organisations operating in this space, veterans can too often be overwhelmed and the establishment of a centralised model for service delivery is most welcome. Congratulations again to Commodore Graham Sloper AM RAN (Rtd) and his team; and Ben Webb, the Centre Manager, a veteran himself, and Dee Why RSL Club for such splendid collaborative work.