Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the treatment of veterans and in particular about the wellbeing centre for Darwin. There was no money in the budget for it. The DVA office in Darwin remains shut. One of the things that we're giving feedback to the federal government on—about the terms of reference to the royal commission—is around the availability, quality and effectiveness of health, wellbeing and support services. Meanwhile, the DVA office is shut and there's no money for the veteran wellbeing centre in the budget.

I'm very honoured to have one of my former soldiers with me today here in the chamber. James Duffy served with me in the 3rd battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment. We went to the Malaysia in the early nineties where Duff picked up an ear infection through his service in the mortar—mortars are very loud. If you can imagine a thing exploding that's very loud—it causes permanent hearing loss. After a big battle with DVA—after about five years—Duff received hearing aids. DVA accepted the hearing loss was due to his service, but when it came to replacing the hearing aids they just wanted to give him a basic model instead of excellent hearing aids which, of course, he deserves, having that hearing loss from his service. There are so many things that this royal commission into veterans and defence members needs to address and that is one of them. These people need to be looked after— (Time expired)