Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to give a shout-out to Matilda as she leaves the gallery. My question is to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Minister, more than 20 veterans and family members are in Parliament House today—they're in the gallery as I speak—to raise their concerns about your broken promise to impose a $5,000 cap on veterans allied health services. Minister, these veterans have travelled to parliament to be heard. Why have you refused to meet them? What or who could possibly be more important?

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. I give a shout-out to Alicia, who's the representative for Burt for the National Youth Parliament.

The promises element of the question that was made is completely unclear to me, but what is really important is what we are doing when it comes to allied health. It's about making it easier for our veteran community to access allied health services, because we have been hearing for a very long time that providers have been cutting back on providing these services or threatening to cut back on these services because of the fees paid to them.

We have committed nearly $170 million to make the biggest increase in fees being paid to allied health service providers in 20 years. This is incredibly important. We are matching that with removing the burdensome 12-session allied health treatment cycle, where veterans have to continually go back to see a GP to get a new referral every 12 sessions. As part of that, we're replacing that with an initial $5,000 threshold, and, as part of moving to that $5,000 threshold, we have committed to engaging with the veteran community to make sure that that works as seamlessly as possible.

I've been engaging with the veteran community, with ex-service organisations and with the practitioners that deliver that support. We were in the process of finalising a discussion paper to be able to deliver that consultation process.

Milton Dick (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause. The member for Riverina on a point of order?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My point of order is on relevance. I asked why the minister won't meet these veterans today.

Milton Dick (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister was asked a specific question. He'll need to confine his remarks to the question. I've given him some latitude, but he'll have to be short in his response.

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

We're in the process of putting together a discussion paper that will be released for broad consultation with the veteran community. As I informed those people who wished to meet with me—

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my left will cease interjecting.

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

I thought they wanted an answer to the question.

Opposition members: We do.

Milton Dick (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister can come to his conclusion.

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

As they were informed last week by my office, I am unable to meet with them today, but, as I have continually said, and I engage with many ex-service organisations, we wish to engage with them and the practitioners in allied health services to make sure that we deliver a service that is available with no gap in service while they are accessing the clinically required allied health services.

We want to improve this access by paying allied health service providers more and by making it easier for veterans to access this without having to continually go back to a GP. We will continue to engage with the veterans sector. I am sure that as part of those engagements those people who have visited today will participate in providing feedback and engaging in the consultation forums that we will be running so that we get these reforms right.

If the opposition continue to want to shout instead of actually engaging in the policy development process, they're going to be incredibly unhelpful in getting those positive outcomes— (Time expired)

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to table the minister's letter of refusal to meet with those heroes.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is not granted.