Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, and I refer to his previous answer. In that answer, the minister just said that the backlog of unprocessed veterans' claims has been 'building up for years'. Given this government has been in office for almost a decade, who is responsible for that backlog building up for years, and are the funds actually in the budget or in their contingency reserve?

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition.

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting—

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

Well—

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister has the call.

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

The responsibility to deal with the unacceptably high backlog of claims—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr Speaker, I ask that you bring the House to order.

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, members on my left!

Member for Solomon!

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

The responsibility for clearing that unacceptably high backlog of claims rests with me. It's my job to clear it up. I have to clear it up for veterans, I have to clear it up for ADF personnel and I have to clear it up for their families. That is my responsibility, and it's a responsibility that I take very seriously. That's why I wanted the $96 million to back the action plan, to do something about it and to give me the tools and the funding that I need to get that job done. I don't apologise for it today. I'm not going to apologise for what I said. I stand by everything I said, and I stand by everything I did.

As far as the funding goes, there is $22.8 million as a line item in the budget, and the balance of just over $73 million is in a contingency reserve, which is also part of the budget. So the funding is there. It's my job to represent veterans, and I'm satisfied that the funding is there—I've seen the paperwork—and the $96 million is going to make a difference to clearing up that backlog of claims. I stand by everything I said and everything I did, and I would do it all again tomorrow for the veterans.