Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill 2022. Australians owe a debt of gratitude to our veterans. When a person enlists in the ADF, they commit to serve their country and the people of Australia, whether in wars, conflicts, peacekeeping or disaster support. I am pleased to have RAAF Base Amberley in my electorate. It's a beloved institution. The people there are greatly valued. In return, as a grateful nation, we have responsibilities to serve and look after defence personnel, whether serving or subsequent.

Housing affordability is one of the biggest challenges facing Australians today, and it's harder to buy a house today than ever before. Defence personnel and veterans are not immune to this and often face unique challenges when it comes to buying their own home. Homeownership levels within the ADF have traditionally been low due to the nature of service, including the frequency of posting cycles throughout Australia and a high operational tempo with overseas deployments in recent years. This bill also responds to the struggles experienced by veterans and the role that housing can play in their greater wellbeing. We've seen with the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide the effect that homelessness has had on the mental wellbeing of veterans throughout the country. In a recent report, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that safe, secure and affordable housing is fundamental to veterans' wellbeing.

Labor has always understood these issues, and we have a strong record of providing housing support for our service men and women. The Hawke-Keating Labor government, under the great Minister for Defence, Kim Beazley, created Defence Housing Australia in 1987 to provide high-quality housing for defence members throughout the country. Despite coalition threats to sell off DHA over the years, its services remain very popular with defence members. It was the Rudd Labor government that established the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme, DHOAS, in 2008 to promote homeownership through a monthly subsidy on mortgage interest payments for eligible defence personnel and veterans. This replaced the former Defence Home Ownership Scheme set up by the Hawke-Keating government in 1991 to assist current and former ADF members to purchase their homes.

These initiatives also recognise that housing entitlements are a key recruitment and retention tool. It's a welfare and support measure, as evidence to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide clearly demonstrates. It's also a recruitment and retention measure. Every year, one in 10 people separate from their employment in the ADF. It's a goal—a bipartisan goal—to increase the size of the ADF, and we are currently falling behind when it comes to annual recruitment of ADF members. The proposal, which is supported by both sides of politics, is to increase the ADF workforce by 30 per cent to 80,000 members by 2040. This measure in this bill is key in that proposal.

Over the years, DHOAS has proved very popular, with more than 30,000 ADF members accessing support totalling $395 million, paid in subsidies from 2008 to 2014. Recent Defence annual reports show continuing interest in the scheme, with 6,123 applicants processed and 3,602 subsidy payments made in 2020-21.

When we were in opposition, Labor received a lot of feedback from ADF members that defence housing entitlements simply weren't effective, given the current state of the housing market, including in places like Ipswich, Townsville and Brisbane, and they suggested that there needed to be more support for homeownership, relative to accommodation entitlements. In addition, some veterans told us that their access to housing and homeownership specifically would support their transition back to civilian life after they'd left the ADF. That's why, as the former shadow minister for veterans' affairs and defence personnel, I was proud to announce that an incoming Labor government would boost homeownership for defence personnel and veterans by expanding eligibility criteria for the DHOAS.

The changes we announced which are the subject of this bill will improve access to homeownership for defence personnel early in their defence careers and allow veterans to access the scheme at any time after they've completed their service. These improvements will be greatly appreciated. The bill also makes amendments to the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Act 2008 which aim to improve homeownership levels amongst serving defence personnel and members of the veterans community by: (1) reducing the qualifying service period for defence members to access the scheme; (2) reducing the required period of effective service to access subsidy tier levels; and (3) removing the current five-year post-separation time frame for accessing the scheme.

The bill also makes a range of amendments that will improve the operation of the scheme, including creating a power to declare that a subsidised loan was not paid down where it was the result of a genuine error, mistake or accident; creating a mechanism to make relevant payments, including overpayments, otherwise not authorised by the act; and creating a mechanism to recover relevant payments that are not overpayments. In short, we're reducing or removing the minimum service requirement for each subsidy tier from 1 January 2023, by halving the minimum service required for access for current defence personnel from four years to two years for permanent service, and from eight years to four years for reserve service, and by removing the access cap altogether for veterans who've left the service. This will be greatly appreciated and is a particularly good improvement to the scheme.

I know that this will make a huge difference to current and former service personnel in my electorate of Blair, which has one of the largest defence and veterans communities in the country, being home to the RAAF base at Amberley, the largest Air Force base in the country, and home to many Army units as well. As an example of the benefits of the expanded DHOAS, an aviator based at Amberley for two years might expect to access the scheme with a subsidised loan of $402,159 and a maximum monthly interest rate subsidy of up to $422, based on current arrangements. On top of this, any ADF personnel and veterans buying a home in, say, a regional centre like Townsville or Darwin will be able to access the government's Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, which will help 10,000 regional Australians enter their first home every year with a deposit of as little as five per cent.

Importantly, the bill allows veterans to apply for their final subsidy certificate at any time after they've separated from the Defence Force, removing the current five-year limitation. It's very welcome that this amendment has been extended to surviving partners who have similarly been impacted by the death of a member, which acknowledges that families in the Defence Force can be deeply affected by military service.

Altogether, the bill reinforces and furthers the Albanese Labor government's commitment to homeownership for defence members and veterans, as well as to veteran wellbeing, and it assists with recruitment and retention in the ADF. This commitment is why the government's first budget, handed down on 25 October, includes $46.2 million over four years to support these changes. We are introducing a bill and we're backing it up with the money. We know that housing entitlements are a key recruitment and retention tool, so reforms to DHOAS will help to meet our ADF workforce targets. The bill assists in positioning the ADF as an employer of choice, assisting serving members and veterans to buy a home and ensuring the scheme can be administered as efficiently, effectively and beneficially as possible.

Before the election, the Morrison government announced the largest increase in the ADF since the Vietnam War. It did that in March 2022. Labor was happy to back that in. We absolutely agree that in these challenging times, particularly in the Indo Pacific, we need to enlarge the ADF. We need to have a bigger, stronger and larger permanent ADF. The problem is that the coalition government failed to provide any details as to how it was going to achieve this. We haven't been hitting the targets and we weren't hitting those targets, going forward, that we needed to in the last nine years. That's why the Labor government committed to undertaking a comprehensive review of ADF recruitment and retention measures to ensure our armed forces have the personnel they need to keep Australia safe and defend our national interests—no more hollowing out of the military.

I am pleased to see that, since the election of the Albanese government, defence has been a priority. We have initiated an urgent review into our ambitious defence workforce targets and recruitment and retention practices, noting that acute skills shortages are being experienced across many sectors of the country, not just in the ADF. At the end of the day, our greatest defence capability is our people, and measures like supporting housing and homeownership will be vitally important to growing and sustaining our ADF. This policy is based on consultation and discussions by caucus members—I know I did so much of it myself during that period—with ADF members, whether it was in Adelaide, Melbourne or Townsville—or in Ipswich or Brisbane, which I undertook, and I'm pleased that the minister has undertaken similar consultation. There was consultation with veterans housing providers. I remember a very important meeting I had with RSL Care in South Australia to discuss this issue, and I thank them for their input when we were in opposition and thank the minister for the work he's doing in government. I'm pleased to see that several ex-service organisations have been consulted on this bill since the election and are supportive of these reforms. I note that the member for Herbert and the shadow minister for veterans' affairs have provided feedback on the scheme, and I welcome that. I welcome the fact that the Leader of the Opposition expressed strong support for this bill in his budget reply speech. Bipartisan support is really important.

These changes are due to commence on 1 January 2023, so I applaud the assistant minister for defence and veterans' affairs for bringing this bill forward to ensure that can happen. It's vital we pass this legislation before the end of the year. Doing so will allow ADF members and veterans to benefit from these generous arrangements from next year and will assist them and their families in working out what is going to happen with their housing arrangements in the next calendar year. I would expect these changes to boost homeownership amongst current and former defence personnel, which is a key plank of the Labor government's strategy going forward.

This has been designed with military families. We appreciate the consultation. They have been looking at better posting cycles, which is something this government has been looking at too, and at better transition services and housing solutions. They will support the government's initiative to attack veterans homelessness. One in 10 people last night who were homeless were a veteran sleeping rough. We can't honour them just on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day; we've got to honour them each and every day. Over the next five years $30 million in returns from our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund will be allocated to build more housing and to fund specialist services for veterans who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness, as part of our broader investments in affordable and social housing.

This extra assistance for the defence and veteran community comes on top of the government's broader measures to address cost-of-living pressures, which have been making it very difficult for Australians, particularly those in the veteran community, to achieve their dream of homeownership. We are making housing more affordable and helping Australians buy homes through initiatives such as the Housing Australia Future Fund and a new National Housing Accord with all levels of government, investors and the construction industry to deliver 20,000 affordable homes.

These reforms to the DHOAS are just one part of our strong election and budget package of tangible support for veterans with a focus on cost-of-living, service delivery, jobs, housing and family support to improve the welfare of veterans and their families. These are not platitudes or token gestures, like dodgy discount schemes and lapel pins, so loved and promoted by the previous coalition government.

Through this bill the government is improving access to homeownership for defence personnel early in their careers and is allowing veterans to access assistance anytime after they have completed their service. This is practical financial, wellbeing help for veterans, their families and defence personnel in Ipswich, Townsville, Brisbane and throughout the country.

In conclusion, it was Labor that created the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme. Now the Labor government and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are expanding it by allowing veterans to access the scheme at any time after they've left the ADF. Defence personnel and veterans shouldn't have to worry about where they're going to live after their service is completed. Their housing options should not be vexing them or stressing them in any way.

We are making it easier for current defence personnel to buy their own homes by allowing them access to this scheme after just two years. This won't just give new and future veterans and their families a more secure future; it will help the recruitment of defence personnel. This measure again demonstrates that this government is serious about providing practical support for our current and ex-serving personnel and their families to ensure a better future for the defence and veteran community.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill 2022. I want to acknowledge in this place the member for Solomon and members on both sides of the House—I'm not sure if there are any on the crossbench—who have served our country in uniform.

We live in interesting times, as the Chinese proverb goes. We are now in a period of the greatest geopolitical instability since the end of the Second World War. Many pressures are being brought to bear on the geopolitical situation right across the world. Who would've thought 12 months ago that there would be a war raging in Europe right now with the illegal and appalling actions of President Putin and Russia with its most recent invasion of Ukraine, which of course follows its invasion of Crimea in 2014? Of course, closer to home we see a greater contested space in the Indo-Pacific region. All of these pressures that are being brought to bear across the world are having significant impacts on the stability and security of our world. At this time it is critical that we as a nation do everything we possibly can to properly equip, tool, recruit and retain our members of the ADF.

We are a very small country when it comes to population. We have only 25 million people. We have a military force of only about 85,000 full-timers and reservists. That is a very small military. Whilst it is small, it is very capable. But there is a certain quality in quantity, and quantity is something that we really do lack considerably. That's why I was very pleased to see—I think it is a step in the right direction—in March of this year, the then Prime Minister announce a 30 per cent increase in our full-time ADF, taking the full-time ADF to 80,000 people, so an increase of 18,500 people at a cost of some $38 billion. But one is still left with the overriding concern that the ADF is still nowhere near big enough. I saw with great interest former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott talk about the importance of bringing in a form of national service for our young people. Now, whether that is in the ADF or whether that's in some form of civilian service, I think these are things that need to be considered.

The reality is that Australia has been left with its pants down from a military perspective, in many instances. If you look back to World War I and World War II, the writing has been on the wall and yet Australia has simply been unprepared, from a military size—

The bells having been rung—

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Apologies, Member for Fisher. It's about a quorum. If we have a member of government leaving, we will need to suspend the chamber until the chair is resumed.

Sitting suspended from 10:22 to 10:26

(Quorum formed)

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition in opposition supports this bill, the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill. It supports the bill because we want to provide and see a strong ADF. We want to see a strong ADF that retains its members. I think, from memory, the ADF has about an 11 per cent churn—that is, 11 per cent of members drop off each year. And one of the good things about the amendments to this bill is that it will encourage—we hope—members to remain in the ADF. That is very, very important, because it's obviously a lot easier to retain a member than it is to train a member from scratch. The ADF relies on its experienced members, so it makes common sense to be able to provide certain incentives for its members to stay as long as they possibly can. I think the minimum period of service in the ADF is four years—I think that's right.

This bill will amend certain eligibility requirements for this scheme, which provides assistance to members with paying a home loan. We know that members of the ADF move around a lot. They move from base to base every couple of years, and it's often difficult for them to put down roots. We know that many ADF members find it difficult to buy a home whilst they're in service, simply because they are moving around a lot. This bill proposes amending the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Act 2008, which provides certain incentives and assistance measures for ADF members to buy a home. That act also provides assistance to members—effectively, it costs them less—to pay for their mortgages. And that's a good thing for the men and women who serve in our uniform to represent this country. Everything that we can do to lighten their load is a good thing.

I won't trouble the chamber too much with the eligibility requirements. I do note that the amendments to the bill are lessening the period for which members are required to serve to be eligible. This actually could have a bit of a perverse outcome. Because if members are able to access the scheme earlier, in some cases in as little as two years, we have some concerns around whether it will actually incentivise ADF members to leave earlier and that would be counterproductive to what we are setting out to do.

One of the other concerns we have is that there appears to have been no real examination of what the cost is going to be. Presumably, because the government is reducing the eligibility periods, more people will become eligible and will take it up, and fair enough. But there's no real insight on the part of the government as to what it's going to cost. Whilst the opposition supports the concept of providing assistance to our ADF members, a responsible government should be able to tell us what this is going to cost and there's very little detail around that. Equally, there's no real detail about whether the government has provided additional assistance to the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

The Department of Veterans' Affairs is going to be administering this scheme. In fact, it does administer the scheme. But with the additional expected uptake, there's been no real measurement or quantification as to the amount of additional work that's going to be needed to be undertaken by DVA officers. This is a concern, because we know all too well that the claims periods currently being undertaken by DVA are too long. We've all heard stories, particularly in the ongoing Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, about the delays experienced by veterans in DVA. If the government are not throwing any additional money to administer this scheme then it's axiomatic that they are going to have to take people away from their existing work to administer this scheme. I have some concerns around that. Perhaps members of the government might want to address in their speeches how the government is going to deal with this issue. Because what we don't want to see—member for Solomon, I'm sure that you agree with me on this—is additional manpower, additional resources being taken away from working through claims of veterans. This is something that the government really should address, because we don't want to see to those waiting periods blow out.

Having said all of that and having said that the opposition supports this bill, I have a number of other concerns. The government have been out there today trumpeting the bill and their support for veterans. But what they give on one hand, they take away with the other. I know that three veterans wellbeing centres were cut from Queensland in the budget announced just two weeks ago—three! They were Mackay, Wide Bay and South East Queensland. The government cut $22.3 million from veterans wellbeing centres. The member for Solomon and all those members opposite who are abreast of these issues should know that my veterans on the Sunshine Coast are up in arms about this. If they want to go to a veterans wellbeing centre, they've got to travel to Ipswich or jump on a plane and go up to Townsville. That is unsatisfactory.

Across the country we're seeing a net reduction of four veterans wellbeing centres that we funded. Three of those are in Queensland, as I said. I'm not quite sure why this government doesn't like Queenslanders—or perhaps veterans in Queensland—but three of the four centres that were cut are in Queensland. If this government was fair dinkum about supporting veterans, as it says it is, then it would restore that $22.3 million in funding to veterans wellbeing centres and it would do it today. I can tell you that veterans in my electorate are up in arms about this. They are very, very, very unhappy with the government on this issue.

One of the other things that I want to use my remaining time to talk about—and this goes to the issue of retaining and attracting ADF personnel—is what I loosely refer to as an Australian equivalent of the American GI bill. I am absolutely passionate about Australia introducing an Australian version of a GI bill. When they transition into civilian life, many ADF members find it difficult to use the skills that they've learnt in the ADF. I'm not suggesting for a second that that happens across the board, but certainly some have issues with transitioning. I believe that the Australian government has an obligation not only to provide assistance to put roofs over veterans' heads but also to educate them. I would like to see an Australian equivalent of a GI bill where Australian veterans are provided financial assistance to study while they are in the ADF—whether it's a law degree or an arts degree or whatever it might be—to give them that successful transition. I commend this bill to the House.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill 2022. On indulgence, I would like to acknowledge a couple of fellow vets in the chamber: the member for Menzies, who is my co-chair in the parliamentary friends of veterans group, and the former chair of the group, the member for Solomon, who are in the chamber with me whilst I give this speech.

This bill is yet another example of the Albanese Labor government's following through on an election commitment. This election commitment is one part of Labor's plan to address the pressures our veterans are experiencing. If passed, this bill will come into effect on 1 January 2023. New applicants to the scheme from that day onward will be able to take advantage of the provisions of the bill, many of which I'll outline broadly. The bill will also allow applicants who are veterans to reapply where they were previously refused a subsidy certificate because they had not completed their qualifying service period or they had made their application outside of the five-year post-separation limit.

At its core, the bill fulfills Labor's election commitment to boost homeownership for defence members and veterans. This is at a time when we know veterans are amongst the fastest growing groups experiencing homelessness. According to the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, veterans comprise 5.6 per cent of our total homeless, with an average of 6.3 years of sleeping rough or in other forms of emergency accommodation. This over-representation is a true mark of shame for this country.

This plan involves several key elements, many of which are already underway through legislation before the parliament or funded through budget measures. Other measures include the delivery of veteran wellness hubs, one of which is to be located in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, namely in my electorate of Spence. This bill amends the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Act 2008, expanding the eligibility criteria for the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme as part of the ADF's recruitment and retention package.

The Australian National Audit Office have produced a number of reports concerning the Australian Defence Force and its ability to recruit and retrain personnel. The main audits occurred in 2000 and 2003. The latter used a line that sticks with me:

Expenditure on retention has the potential to be much more cost effective than expenditure on recruitment and training.

The Australian Defence Force is an employer, though not one like many others. It doesn't have competitors in the traditional sense but it does have competitors for its human capital. Whether it's mining companies poaching members for their skill sets, such as driving heavy vehicles, or airlines poaching members of the RAAF, this is competition just the same. And, just like that, the money that was invested to train that ADF member will now benefit a private employer. It goes without saying that it is often far cheaper in the long run to keep personnel you've invested time and resources into, upskilling them further over time, than to start afresh after attrition has set in, requiring you to fill vacancies rather than expand capacity. This bill definitely moves things further in the right direction. If this encourages someone to think twice before responding to a headhunter looking for highly skilled and highly trained employees, then it is money well spent.

Without going through the bill clause by clause, I will highlight some of the operative clauses for the sake of brevity. The main change is the proposed minimum service periods one needs in order to access the various tiers of subsidies through the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme. This means that a permanent member would need to have served a minimum of two, four and eight years for tiers 1, 2 and 3 respectively. For tiers 1 and 2, this threshold has been halved. For reserve members, however, that minimum service level is now down from eight years to four years, 12 years to eight years, and 16 years to 12 years for tier 1, 2 and 3 subsidies respectively—a marked improvement.

It is no secret that housing affordability is one of the biggest issues and challenges that we need to tackle. This bill aims to do so in a measured way with a dual purpose. This is a bill that aims to assist those at all ends of their time in the Australian Defence Force. This bill aims to make life easier for current-serving, permanent ADF members, reservists and veterans alike. The bill allows veterans to apply for their final subsidy through this scheme, at any time that suits them, after separating from the ADF. This is a big step forward in assisting veterans to adjust to civilian life without being bogged down with administrative hurdles.

These provisions pair well with others in the bill that ensure that, in the event of a genuine error, mistake or accident occurring—such as transferring funds into a loan account by mistake—the subsidy would still be paid. This is more of a human approach and one that many veterans have approached me to indicate seldom occurs from any form of government initiative, department or scheme. We are at least making some progress now.

There is a reason why this is of significance. Within my state of South Australia, the division of Spence contains the largest number of DVA clients, including families, to a fairly clear extent. My electorate of Spence hosts Royal Australian Air Force Base Edinburgh, or RAAF Base Edinburgh, where many currently serving Defence Force members perform vital functions to keep us safe. On indulgence, I'd like to thank all of our defence personnel across the country for their service. On the other side of the coin, concerning defence personnel, many ADF members have established roots within the local community after realising that their duties at RAAF Base Edinburgh are to continue for a number of years. We know that on census night 1,316 permanent Australian Defence Force members and 284 reservists were in Spence. This number is dwarfed by the 4,487 veterans in Spence, people who have previously served in the Australian Defence Force. That is 6,000 people in my electorate who either are serving or have served. This number doesn't begin to count their respective families, either, and with the expected expansion of RAAF Base Edinburgh slated for the not too distant future, it is perfectly logical to deduce that the number of active defence personnel within Spence is only likely to rise.

Despite all the talk about Labor's veterans' policy in the lead-up to the election, I'm glad that, no matter what stage of the sitting week we are in and no matter the volume of controversial and hard-fought legislation and motions in this place, it is heartening that we are able to safely assume that, despite whatever else that is happening, we can stand united across the chamber on matters involving improving the quality of life and living standards of veterans and defence personnel in this country. It is in this spirit that I'd like to thank the member for Sturt for his contribution on this bill last night. It was an excellent contribution to this debate, and it was great to see one of my fellow South Australians in this place echoing very similar sentiments to my own concerning an issue that is very important to my heart.

In the relatively short time since my election to this place, I have thoroughly enjoyed my dealings with the local defence and veterans communities. In fact, after the conclusion of this sitting week I will be holding a roundtable with local veterans groups concerning the progress of our veterans wellness hub. The success of our upcoming event remains to be seen. However, the success of the previous event in Spence for the veterans wellness hub could not have enjoyed such a high level of success had it not been for the attendance and involvement of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel, the member for Burt, and the Assistant Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the member for Kingsford Smith. The assistance and guidance provided by you both, along with your respective offices, have helped me to engage with local veterans groups in the knowledge that the Albanese Labor government really does intend to follow through with its election commitments and with its assistance to veterans. I'd also like to thank the member for Blair for his assistance back when I was merely a candidate who had only recently been preselected. Those three members are proof to me that this government cares strongly about its men and women serving in the Australian Defence Force and those who once served in the ADF.

We know full well that we have to do our part to serve those who have served and those who continue to serve. Anything less would be a loss of faith, one that the heart of our nation should not endure. I am confident that this bill is going to make a great deal of a difference to the lives of many Australian Defence Force members, reservists, veterans and their families, and for that I commend this bill.

Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge fellow veterans the members for Spence and Solomon. In various capacities, we've actually served together. We started off as reservists in the 8/7 Royal Victorian Regiment, which is a very proud regiment. I think there are many names from the 8th/7th Battalion engraved on our war memorial, many of whom were Victoria Cross winners and many of whom fought in every conflict. It's one of the oldest reserve battalions in the country.

Member for Solomon, we did commando selection together, so we got to see each other at our best and our worst, where all of the layers were peeled away with no sleep and no food. It was a wonderful life experience that I'm glad that I shared with you. I also acknowledge that we're both co-chairs of the parliamentary friends of veterans group. It's important that, wherever we can, we make sure that it's bipartisan because, I think, both major parties take this seriously and we do our best. We might differ on the margins, but at the core interests of veterans we're as one, as we should be.

I rise to speak to the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill 2022. I'm actually someone who has one of these home loans. It's on my declaration of interests. I acknowledge that the pay that we get here is way above what the average Australian gets, but it's probably something that wasn't quite noticed with lower interest rates. Because the scheme is tagged to how the interest rate is, as interest rates go up I think people will notice it more. Those who use it will really appreciate it, especially as the cost of living rises in so many areas, so making this more available is a really good thing and a timely thing to do.

Serving our nation is a privilege, and it demands the most and the best of us. Before I go to the bill, I would like to give some historical context to a scheme like this. The chamber might not be aware, but this bill belongs in the best traditions of the Australian Public Service. After the First World War—Australia's greatest generation—the government decided to come to soldiers' aid, and they did it in the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act 1917, which was designed to deliver en-masse support for soldier property ownership. In the Victorian experience of that, in Mallee, Gippsland and the Goulburn Valley, over 10,000 soldiers found a home. The government acquired a million hectares, and a formidable deciding body was established. It was called the Victorian Lands Purchase and Administration Board.

All of the inputs was celebrated and the funding was paraded. They didn't have social media then to tell everyone what was happening, so they put it on bills and posters and in the newspapers. Everyone thought, what a great thing! But, often, the devil is in the detail, and the execution didn't turn out too well. In some states, more than half of those resettled did not remain in their properties in the succeeding decades. In 1926—and we know what was happening in the 1920s in Australia—3,000 walked from their homes in Victoria. That's what we saw in the United States in 2008, when people dropped the keys on the kitchen bench and walked out of their house, creating the financial crisis. But it happened in Australia too.

It was a bright and shiny idea. It had all of the press plaudits. It was just defied by the reality and the times—the economic crisis that the nation faced. Even though they were gifted land, many could not afford their homes. Many were without work and they didn't have the means to sustain it. There was a royal commission that followed it, and this was in the era where royal commissions were rare, unlike the times we find ourselves in now. The verdict was clear: the scheme had overwhelmingly failed.

I'm not raising this because I feel that this scheme is in that territory. I'm raising this because we should always learn from the past and the mistakes that are made, even the past as distant as a century ago. There is an important lesson from that experience, and it's that support for veterans does not work in a vacuum. We should not be deluded into thinking that we might offer a cash scheme, a simple loan, and then that's it: we've done our job; we don't need to think about it anymore. We should not avert our gaze from the complexity of these challenges and the onus on us to make sure that the implementation of a scheme is as it should be.

Maintaining a long career in the armed forces is truly a challenge. It's one that's not easily reduced to a cold calculation of financial entitlements.

I do know that these programs—often, conceived by well-meaning public servants here in Canberra—need to be stress-tested. If we get them wrong, it is not we who pay the price; it is the veterans at the other end. So we should make sure that this scheme is continuously reviewed.

Another historical context for the purpose of the scheme is the concept of homeownership. Homeownership, I think, is core to our sense of fairness as Australians. It is core to economic security. We know that—whether you have a partner or you are single, you've been divorced or someone has died—if you have your own home, your financial security is entirely from different people who don't. So the more Australians we can have owning their own home, the better and fairer a nation we will be.

When you look at the statistics on homeownership for younger people, they're not good enough. And that failure is on my party as much as it is on any other. The challenge is on all of us, but obviously the Labor Party is in government. We need more young people owning a home.

The founder of my party, Robert Menzies, in the depths of World War II, when he could have thought about nothing but national security, turned his mind to homeownership. In his forgotten generation speech, he singled it out as one of the most important things for this country—even in World War II, when our very survival was at stake. He spoke about people having a home of their own into which they could withdraw and in which they could be among their friends.

A home into which a veteran can withdraw and be among their friends is the greatest gift that we can give a young veteran. If they have done two years of service, or four years as a reservist, we are talking about young Australians in their 20s who have their whole future ahead of them. So if they're making that decision, incentivised by this scheme, to buy a home, then I think we've done a great thing for them.

Turning to the actual bill and the policy detail, if we look at the implementation for the year 2020-21, over 6,000 applications were made and over 3,600 subsidies were paid. So the program enjoys growing demand. It's well-regarded. When I was serving, I know that there wasn't a serving member who wasn't aware of it. And it's not just the subsidy; it's that decision to put their money towards a house that a young person might not otherwise make. So in a way, we're sort of giving them a nudge, like a parent would, to do the right thing for themselves.

The critical terms of the bill specify reductions in the required minimum years of service, and I think this is an important thing. When a person put on our uniform, as a reservist or a full-time member, they signed a contract that had a term that meant they would lay their life down for this nation. Whether they served more than a day or a week, or served overseas or domestically, that was a contract they engaged in voluntarily, and we owe them a great debt of gratitude because of that. The change in this bill reducing the time frame is an important change that recognises the importance of that service—because all service matters.

In terms of the monetary context, it is clear, from the recent budget and the pronouncements of the Reserve Bank governor, that inflation is not going away, the cost of living is not going down and interest rates will continue to rise. So, given these headwinds, it is important that the subsidies remain tiered to the median interest rate, with all of the fluctuations that the months and years ahead may present.

Another issue I'd like to note is the actual number of banks that subscribe to this scheme. So, at present, the right to the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme, or DHOAS, as it's referred to, is implemented by three banks: the National Australia Bank, the Defence Bank and the Australian Military Bank. I think it would be worth reviewing if there is any way for that scheme to be used more broadly. The reason is this: you may have a subsidy given on an interest rate, but if the bank down the road is offering a reduced rate then it's really just a cash transfer to that institution. It would be nice for a veteran to look through the market, like any other young person would, and say, 'I have found for myself and my family the best rate,' and then add onto that the subsidy that is in this scheme.

If it's just limited to three banks and they then add onto that subsidy other fees, charges or a higher interest rate then there's a risk that this scheme is helping not veterans but the National Australia Bank, the Defence Bank and the Australian Military Bank. It should be available to all providers of mortgages. If the only restriction on that is the providers themselves not signing up to it, I plead with them to get on board and offer this to their customers. The most competitive mortgage rate plus the subsidy should be available.

The point has been made by others that one of the risks of reducing eligibility is that it might affect retention. I don't accept that argument. If a reservist or a full-time member is paying a monthly mortgage, they're not going to rush off and change jobs in a hurry. I don't think it's going to affect retention at all. It's just recognising, as it should, that service matters, no matter how long.

I turn to the geopolitical context we find ourselves in. It's not lost on any members of the House that these are graver times than we saw 10 years ago or 20 years ago, principally in our region. We are looking to increase the Defence Force by 30 per cent, and that has bipartisan support. With the low unemployment rates that we have that's not an easy thing to do. This scheme is an extra reason for talented members of the public to sign up to the Defence Force and help get those numbers up. It's just another reason to pick this job over others.

I conclude in the last few minutes where I started. This nation has a great tradition of encouraging veterans into their own home. We didn't always get it right, but with the history of the 1917 act we need to recognise that these schemes live and die by the economic circumstances they are found in. We had a royal commission into the 1917 act because this scheme then clashed with the Great Depression. We are not heading into another great depression—touch wood; I don't want to crash the market today—but we are heading into tough times. This scheme must survive in those tough times.

I commend the government on the amendments. They have our support. We should keep an eye on it as inflation rises and interest rates rise. I repeat my plea that every mortgage provider in the nation gets on board, is there for veterans and uses this scheme. They will be great customers of yours. If you put them first, they will reward you. I commend the bill to the House.

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

I can assure the member for Menzies, the previous speaker, that the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme will survive tough times. As we've heard, this was an initiative of the Rudd government, so we're obviously proud of it and we're also proud of these changes that will make it more accessible. As my veteran colleagues and previous speakers have done, I recognise all our men and women in uniform and those who have served. I didn't realise there was such an 8/7RVR mafia in this place.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, Member for Solomon.

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

I acknowledge the members of this group—the member for Spence, the member for Menzies and you, Mr Deputy Speaker Wilkie—and I recognise the service of reservists and full-time members of our Australian Defence Force now and in the future. We hope to fill the ranks of our Australian Defence Force for the times that we face in the future, and this initiative, which Defence rightly calls a retention initiative, is aimed at doing just that—encouraging members to continue serving in the ADF. And it assists them with housing once they move into the reserves or into civilian life more fully.

It's an incentive for members to stay in the ADF because, the longer they serve, the more entitlement they accrue and the longer they can receive assistance through this scheme. So it really helps defence families. When a member passes away, the member's surviving partner may apply for the member's benefits under the scheme as well. So even with the death of a member, not only will groups like Legacy wrap around the family; this scheme will continue to support them. It's very important to many people who serve in uniform and their families and kids.

Since 2008, the scheme has invested in affordable housing for veterans who face difficulties, like all Australians do, when it comes to housing, but I think it's important to note that servicemen and women moving around often has a big effect on their ability to own a home. The scheme gives eligible ADF members and veterans a monthly subsidy payment on the interest portion of their mortgage payments for those who purchase their own home. To give an example from my service, I was posted here to Canberra initially, then to Sydney, Singleton, Bonegilla in Victoria, Wagga in New South Wales, Perth, back to Sydney, Timor-Leste and Arnhem Land, and I worked in security related roles in the Middle East and elsewhere. So you move around a lot in that vocation, and it does make it difficult. We have a large and growing veteran population, and to the great shame of our nation often too many veterans can't find any housing at all. Way too many veterans end up sleeping rough or couch surfing with mates. In fact, I'm told—and there's no reason not to believe this—5,000 veterans will experience homelessness tonight.

A 2019 study by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute found that 5.3 per cent of the recently transitioned ADF population are homeless. That is an astonishing figure, especially considering that the homelessness rate for the general population is at 1.9 per cent. Obviously, that is too high, and there are many initiatives in the budget that's just been handed down by the Albanese Labor government that go towards assisting housing and alleviating homelessness across the spectrum. However, that huge 5.3 per cent is of massive concern. It was, in no small way, part of my motivation to fight so hard in the last term of parliament to get the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide established, because it was clear to me and so many others in the veteran community that there was a direct link between a couple of things—medical discharges, suicidal ideation and suicide, homelessness, and substance abuse.

Of course, in my electorate of Solomon, homelessness is much higher than the national average of 1.9 per cent, and I'm proud of the initiatives in the budget that will help to alleviate some of that. It was great to have St Vincent de Paul Society down here in Canberra recently. That same study found that about two-thirds of recently homeless ADF veterans reported being suicidal at least once in the past year and that's why this royal commission was so necessary. That's higher than the still shocking one-quarter of non-homeless ADF veterans who had reported being suicidal. But as I said, obviously there is a direct link there. This concerns us all. Deputy Speaker Wilkie, I know it would concern you and any other veteran or member of the defence and veterans' community. That's why this bill is so important to me and to so many, and it's been great to hear those opposite support it.

I believe this is a great Labor reform that has stood the test of time, and that's why our government committed at the May election to boost defence homeownership by amending the scheme from 1 January next year. That's exactly what this bill does. The bill recognises that housing affordability is one of the biggest issues facing Australia and it responds to the struggles experienced by veterans during their transition to civilian life that too often ends in homelessness. It helps to give those serving defence members and veterans who need it a hand up to buy their own home. The bill reinforces and furthers the Albanese Labor government's commitment to retention in the Australian Defence Force, as I've mentioned, and to home ownership for members and veterans, which can be so much more difficult due to the nature of the service and the frequent moves required to meet ADF and our nation's needs. Of course, we have talked about veteran wellbeing. This bill is part of a suite of measures to support veterans, their families and members of the Defence Force to get into homeownership. It's a good policy.

In closing, in my electorate, this policy is so important. But the government are actually doing more, because we realise the scope of the issue. I'm proud of this commitment to establishing some supported housing, not only for veterans but for members of our first-responder community too, those who are on the front line every day, whether as a police officer, an ambulance officer, a fire officer, members of border protection—people who are serving our country or our community in uniform. It will be named after Scott Palmer. Scott Palmer was a commando who was tragically killed in Afghanistan, the only Territorian killed in Afghanistan. Like other places around Australia, we will name our veterans and first responder supported living estates after someone who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

It's worth mentioning why this bill is so important for people in my electorate and in other places in the country. When a member separates from the Defence Force, they leave one family and, often, if they don't have family in Darwin, in Palmerston, in the rural area, then they can get lost without that family support. So this supported accommodation will wrap around that veteran and assist them as they make that transition into civilian life. Those wraparound services will save lives. I'm proud of them. I'm proud of this bill and I thank you for your service, Deputy Speaker Wilkie.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And I thank you, member for Solomon.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We will be putting a formal request into the government that some land be acquired on the high-speed highway planned west of Townsville, heading west from Townsville and surrounding areas, about 300,000 people, not all that much smaller than Canberra. And along that high-speed highway, which will be about 15, 20 minutes from the Jezzine Barracks in Townsville, the home of the Australian taskforce, we are proposing that there be 2,000 homes built. We are proposing that the army, or the government, do what the person who later became Sir James Foots did. James Foots was an engineer sent to Mt Isa, and he did exactly that: he provided 2,000 homes.

If you do it on a scale like this the cost of the land is fairly negligible. Services might be $15,000, purchase of land—again, fairly negligible—let's just say $30,000, and I've priced a three-bedroom house with two toilets at $140,000. So we could provide a house and land package—if we do this—for $170,000. That will cost the soldier 150 bucks a week. The best part of $50 would go in taxation, but let's call that $40. So he's up for 110 bucks a week—that's what it's going to cost him—and in 6½ years he will own his own house.

The attrition rate in our army is one-eighth—that is, one-eighth of our soldiers are leaving each year. The cost of retraining a soldier is absolutely ginormous. The cost to the government of that attrition rate would be much higher than the $35 million a year that this proposal would cost the government. So for $35 million a year, we will have an army that will be there—the same army and the same personnel—in six years time. And there's the secondary factor that, when they get out, they will own their own house.

I've spent two weeks of my life doing nothing but talking about this, and a lot of time before that when we invited Jacqui Lambie and Heston Russell to come up to Townsville. We held a series of meetings, and over 2,000 people attended those meetings—although a lot of other people wanted to get on the bandwagon. Warfighters Coffee is a cafe in Townsville where about 15 or 20 of us used to meet regularly. The Warfighters Coffee club decided to raise the problem of what happens to soldiers when they get out, and the horrific rates of suicide and trauma.

A very good friend of mine—one of the great Australians—carries around with him a photograph of his platoon. There were about 21 of them in the platoon. Seven of them are all right. Of the other 14, six of them have done away with themselves, and the others are in a very bad way—let's just say addiction and leave it at that, but it's all sorts of addictions. Their lives are pretty much wrecked. My friend carries that photo around with him everywhere he goes. It's been explained to me this way: when you're in the army, you've got a home and you've got security. If you're a single man, the army is your family, and you've got your ordinary family as well. And you've got a secure income. When you get out, your secure income vanishes. Your two families vanish—your army family vanishes, and as often as not your real family vanishes as well. And you've got no home. When those four things hit you, then the outcome is very, very sad indeed.

But if they own their own home—after 6½ years—when they get out, then I think we've got a good chance of keeping their real family together, because there would be no cost for housing at all, and they'd have an income from the army—or an unemployment benefit, if you like. We've been meeting with Soldier On, and I think a lot more work could be done in that area. But I want to return to the housing. This is really very simple, and I speak with considerable authority here, since I was one of the three biggest housebuilders in Queensland—I might have been the biggest housebuilder in Queensland.

I had the First Australians portfolio, and we had enough money to build 400 houses. Thanks to the excellent work of the First Australians that I'd taken in to run the department and the First Australian people on the ground, we built 2,000 houses, not 400. We had enough money to build 400; we built 2,000. They got going and mobilised Work for the Dole labour to the build houses. They got agreement and regulations from the government that all houses in community areas would be built exclusively by local Indigenous labour. The cost of flying people in, paying accommodation—which was enormously costly at a couple of thousand bucks a week—and then flying them out every fortnight was just horrific. We took all those costs out, we provided people that had no income with a serious income, topped up to award wages, and we were able to build 2,000 houses. So I had a lot of experience in building houses.

We can provide for the Army, but, if you're going to take up 2,000 housing blocks, you take up 4,000 housing blocks and you sell 2,000 of them. And, because you're the federal government, you can bypass all the ridiculous impositions referred to very well by the federal Treasurer in the budget this year. He said the real cost of housing is created by the impositions and restrictions placed on it by government rules and regulations. It was wonderful that Mr Chalmers said that because that was absolutely spot on. I'm not going to go into any detail, but I've said it on many occasions in this place: under the mining act, you could buy land in Charters Towers for $7,000; when we went over all these ridiculous impositions from the various regulatory bodies, it went up to $140,000 and settled back to $75,000 to $80,000. We went from $7,000 with no restrictions up to $80,000. So the Treasurer in his budget speech had this dead right.

The Army has at their disposal the ability to bypass all those ridiculous legislations and deliver the land very, very cheaply to themselves and another 2,000 blocks to the public of Townsville, which will virtually pay for the houses. Selling the 2,000 land blocks will pay for the houses. You have to stay in there for 6½ years, and then you'll own your own house in Townsville, which, on average, is worth half a million dollars. So you leave the Army with a wealth of half a million dollars, as well as your Army pension. That's what we want to offer the people of Townsville and the troops based in Townsville, and that's what we intend to do. I give notice of that today. We'll put the detailed proposals before the minister in the next month, before Christmas. We would urge everyone in the House to look at this sort of approach and use the powers of the federal government and the defence heads of power to simply bypass all the ridiculous rubbish and rigmarole that you have to go through at the present moment to do a subdivision.

My own wife who did a number of tiny subdivisions—two or three housing blocks—said she'll never do it again because of the cost and the time. On the other end of the spectrum is the biggest developer in North Queensland, Sir Robert Norman's son, Bob Norman, head of the North Queensland development association and probably the most important person in North Queensland. He owned a thousand acres in the most beautiful place on earth, the Atherton Tablelands, which is 3,000 feet above sea level. It's the only part of Australia that's green all the time. He resold the thousand acres without doing a single subdivision. He said, 'I haven't got enough time in my life, nor am I prepared to take the risks because you don't necessarily know whether you're going to get the right to subdivide, or the cost imposition upon the subdivision will be such that you won't be able to make money out of it.' So he just threw his hands up and said, 'We're not going to do it.'

In the houses that have been built in Townsville and Cairns I can put my hand through the window and shake hands with my neighbour when he puts his hand through the window. There is not enough room for a pot plant, let alone a tree. And one of these areas is called Bushland Beach! If there's one thing that's not at Bushland Beach it's bushland! Two, five, six, seven, eight kilometres of trees were felled. If that was a proper house, a quarter acre, those trees would have been restored. I'm not preoccupied, like a lot of people in this place, with CO2, though I am in favour of us cutting back on CO2. But reducing an area to a barren, galvanised-iron roof wasteland from a beautiful nature wonderland called Bushland Beach is what is happening in all new developments in Townsville and all new developments in Cairns.

It can be overcome by a simple imposition and action by the federal government overriding the ridiculous state government and local authorities that have put in place so many restrictions that the price of land has shot straight through the roof! I bought half a million acres one night—I'll admit, under the influence of some celebrations from some cattle that I'd sold—that a friend of mine was selling for $25,000! Land is worth nothing in North Queensland once you get a little bit away from the coast. If you put a two-lane fast highway, where we're allowed to do 120 kilometres an hour, west of Townsville, you're into that cheap land just 40 or 50 kilometres from Townsville. I'm not saying it's as cheap as what we purchased that night, but there's no comparison with the cost of land in Australia or the cost of land in Townsville now.

The opportunity is available, and the government can simply act and make it happen. At least let us do that for the people who risk their lives in the defence of this country and whose life after they leave the Army is a very, very sad story for which this country should be ashamed.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for your service, Deputy Speaker Wilkie, and thank you for the service provided to our armed services by all of those who now sit in the parliament. I also say thank you to those members, including the member for Blair, who I know has spoken on this particular motion. Thank you for your contribution. Thank you also to the government for bringing forward the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill. This is important. We said at the outset when we returned to opposition that, if there was good legislation and if there was good policy, even if it was going to cost money, then it would be a sensible thing for the opposition to support.

I acknowledge the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, who is in the chamber. I previously held that role in 2017-18, as well as being an assistant minister for defence in 2016. I know how important this particular piece of legislation is for those who have served.

I listened very carefully to the member for Kennedy, and in a wide-ranging speech he said some good things that we, as legislators in this place, can adhere to. He is quite right when he says that land availability and planning and development are things that are holding back people's ability to get into their first home and to invest, and that has therefore caused pressures on the rental market. Whether it's in Defence or whether it's in civilian society in general, homeownership at the moment is one of the critical issues, particularly in regional Australia.

I come from Wagga Wagga. It is a garrison city. It is home of the soldier—you know that, Deputy Speaker Wilkie. Every army recruit does their 13 weeks of basic training at Blamey Barracks at the Army Recruit Training Centre in Kapooka, and we in Wagga Wagga are very proud of that base. Since 1939 we've had a Royal Australian Air Force presence, and, if you spend any given time in the RAAF, chances are you will end up at Forest Hill. Since 1993 we've had a navy presence. I know there's currently a lot of water around Wagga Wagga, with the wet weather events we've had in recent times, but, back in the early 1990s when the Navy was establishing itself in Wagga Wagga, it was considered a long way from the nearest drop of seawater. It still is. There wasn't much water about, but it's important that we have that navy presence attached to the RAAF base in our city.

I was the Assistant Minister for Defence at the time the white paper was coming out in January-February 2016, and I am proud that we were able to see fit as a government to invest $1 billion or thereabouts in much-needed infrastructure upgrades for both the Forest Hill RAAF airbase and the Kapooka army base. Particularly at the air force base some of the infrastructure dated back to the 1950s. If you're being accommodated on base, you need the best accommodation. I appreciate the work that Defence Housing Australia has done and have seen that first-hand.

I know Sandy Macdonald, a former senator in this place from 1993 until 2008, and I appreciate the role he has played with Defence Housing Australia, and I commend him for that. It's important that former parliamentarians play their part in giving back, and former senator Macdonald has certainly done that. I know that I am proud of the work that we did together, particularly in Western Australia, to create more housing opportunities for our serving personnel. This creates opportunities for soldiers, aviators and sailors to get into homeownership whilst they're serving and when they return to civilian life.

As the member for Kennedy and others have indicated, it is difficult for soldiers, aviators and sailors to adjust when they leave the force, leave the structure, leave the support mechanisms and leave the military family and go back into civilian life. Sometimes they haven't made those investments and sometimes they haven't thought beyond their uniformed service to consider homeownership. I appreciate that $11½ billion of support is provided through the Department of Veterans' Affairs each and every year, and I appreciate that that's largely uncapped. I know the new minister understands and appreciates the importance of veterans, and I acknowledge that. DVA supports 340,000 veterans and their families every year.

Whilst I appreciate that, I'm digressing a tad. If any veterans either read this in the Hansard or are listening to this broadcast, I would like them to know that Wagga Wagga will have hearings—hearing block 8—into the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide from 28 November to 2 December at the Mercure hotel. Chief Commissioner Nick Kaldas APM supported by Dr Peggy Brown AO and the Hon. James Douglas KC have taken those important hearings to Wagga Wagga, and it's important that anybody who wants to make a submission can do so, because Wagga Wagga is a garrison city. Many veterans who come and serve in our city return to our city after their service and live there.

That's why this particular piece of legislation, the Defence Homeownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill 2022, is so important. We want to see our veterans, those who've proudly worn the uniform, have homeownership. It's not good enough. It wasn't good enough under a coalition government and it's not good enough now under a Labor government that we have veterans, those who've served our nation, those who've put their lives on the line and those who've taken the ultimate risk, living in cars and under bridges.

I appreciate full well that some veterans don't necessarily want to be associated with or attached or connected to the Department of Veterans' Affairs. I fully appreciate that some have had breakdowns in communications with DVA.

But I also want to point out that DVA does an amazing and remarkable job. Those people who work in the Public Service for that department are there to serve those who've served us—those who've served our nation—and those people in DVA do the very best job they can. Can they do better? Of course they can—everyone can; we know that. But help is there for those who seek it, for those who need it, for those who want it. And, if at first you fail to get that support, please try, try again, because DVA is there to support those people.

I appreciate that Bob and Gladys Bak—who were both awarded OAMs and who live in my electorate at Bethungra, and have an organisation called the Integrated Service People's Association of Australia—do what they can, as well, to connect veterans to support, to help mechanisms, to assistance. They work hand-in-hand with the DVA. Sometimes they butt heads. But, by and large, generally, they are very, very good at getting the support that local Riverina veterans need.

I know that Charlotte Webb, working with the local RSL, and Dave Gardiner, the Wagga Wagga sub-branch president, and others in the Wagga Wagga area, are doing their best to give support. I know that those at Pro Patria, who've proposed a veterans wellness centre for North Ashmont in our city, are also doing their best to connect veterans to the support that they need. I would like to think that the federal government, in its May budget, will see fit to honour the $5 million that was provided by the former coalition government to establish a wellness centre, or centres, in Wagga Wagga.

I know that the member for Herbert, in his shadow ministerial role, has spoken passionately in this debate, and he made some very pertinent points. He described the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme as a great scheme. And of course he's right—we know that; the minister appreciates that. He said that it's a scheme that means that, when you're serving, you have that support to help you get into homeownership. He talked about his experience of getting into defence, into the Australian Army, as a raw-boned 17-year-old, and about his background, coming from social housing and from a single-parent family. He described his mum as an awesome single mother, raising three children. He expressed the view that he found it difficult to save—as many 17-year-olds, as many teenagers and people in their early 20s, back then, found it difficult to save. I appreciate that. Even when I was first married, with mortgage rates hovering north of 18 per cent, it was very difficult.

And these days, with the pressure on the cost of living, it is difficult to save. But this legislation—and I commend the government for bringing it forward—provides that hope.

I know the member for McEwen spoke in favour of this particular legislation. I know he knows, in his electorate in Victoria, for the veterans that he serves and represents, how important it is to give them that hope—to give them that ability to get into homeownership.

We do not want our veterans having to sleep rough. We do not want them doing that when they get out of the service.

And they do find it difficult, sometimes, to adjust—they absolutely do. I acknowledge that, having been to Camp Baird in the United Arab Emirates and spoken to a number of serving soldiers who were transitioning in and out of Afghanistan and other deployments. Some of them were talking about their eventual retirement—which was, for them, not going to be that long away—and the concerns that they had as to adjusting back into civilian life. Owning a home is a big aspect, a big part, of that, and we want, as a parliament, to make sure that we give them the very best opportunity to do just that.

I know that the member for Herbert spoke about the DHOAS being introduced by the Department of Defence on 1 July 2008 to assist Australian Defence Force members to achieve homeownership. It's a retention initiative. It aims and encourages members to continue to serve in the ADF by giving them the ability to get into their, potentially, first home. I appreciate that it is going to come at a cost—in 2022-23, $4.8 million; in the following financial year, $11.3 million; in 2024-25, $13.9 million; in 2025-26, $16.2 million, at a total of $46.2 million—but what are our veterans worth?

These are the people we will honour, commemorate and celebrate in two days time, on Armistice Day, when we will pause and acknowledge the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front and other theatres of war in 1918 to end what was called the Great War, or World War I. No war is great; we know that. It's only right that, as members of parliament, we pause and lay wreaths. That is ceremonial, but it's important, and we do mean it—our acknowledgement and respect, the ultimate respect, for those people who've paid the ultimate sacrifice. But, whilst acknowledging that, we should also take the opportunity in this place to make a difference for our veterans. We should do what we can to support and help those people whose names are etched on memorials, having served in wars past and in peacekeeping missions, and those families who have lost loved ones. We need to do what we can in legislation such as this and the Veterans Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill, which will follow this current motion. We need to do what we can to make sure we pass good legislation, and that is why the coalition is supporting this bill.

It is good legislation, and I thank the government and, in particular, the relevant minister for bringing it forward. I acknowledge that they are trying to do everything they can, as we did in government, to support our veterans. I commend the bill to the House.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank all members for their contributions to the debate on the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill 2022. This bill demonstrates the commitment the Albanese Labor government made to boosting homeownership for defence members and veterans and to assisting veterans transitioning from military life to civilian life. As part of the government's election commitments, the bill will amend the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme to expand access to the scheme by providing defence members with access to benefits earlier in their career. The qualifying period will be reduced to two years for serving ADF personnel and to four years for reservists. The bill will also allow veterans to apply for their final subsidy certificate at any time after they've separated from the Australian Defence Force by removing the current five-year limitation. This will ensure that veterans can access the scheme at a time that suits them without feeling pressured to do so in a set period.

These amendments will mean better outcomes for defence members, veterans and their families, reinforcing the government's commitment to retention in the Australian Defence Force, to homeownership for members and veterans as well as to veterans' wellbeing. The bill also helps our defence personnel and veterans with the cost-of-living pressures that all Australians are feeling with regard to housing, which are making it increasingly difficult to achieve that great Australian dream of homeownership. Labor created the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme and now the Albanese Labor government is expanding it. I commend the bill to the House once again. Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.