Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australian veterans deserve the best care. The allied health professionals and occupational therapists delivering that care deserve to be fairly compensated. But the Department of Veterans' Affairs fails to recognise this. It operates an archaic fee structure that fails to properly compensate OTs for their work, which enables veterans to live safely at home. The DVA fee structure for OTs compares very poorly to the NDIS OT fee structure. OTs who care for veterans have an indicative hourly rate of approximately half those who work in the NDIS framework. The NDIS fee structure permits billable hours for all client related time, whereas the DVA fee structure only compensates direct client contact. DVA OTs are unable to claim administrative time. For each client contact hour, there is approximately one to two hours of administration time, which is not reimbursed by DVA. As a result, many experienced OTs are choosing to work in other sectors, where their work is appropriately remunerated. If this continues, client care for veterans will decline, which will be a serious issue in rural areas, where there are fewer OTs. If the government—my government—is truly thankful for the service of our veterans, it must immediately improve DVA fee schedules for OTs and allied health professionals.