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

My question is to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel. RSL Australia president, former Western Australian Labor minister and decorated military veteran Peter Tinley AM described Labor's cruel cuts to allied health services:

… veterans and their families will rightly question a Budget that gives with one hand while taking with the other.

RSL Australia opposes the cap and is calling for it to be withdrawn. Can the minister name a single ex-service organisation—just one—which supports his plan to cap access to allied health services for Australian veterans, Australian heroes?

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

I thank the member for his question. I have engaged extensively with RSL around this, and their feedback and making sure—I spoke to them on the day when we delivered the budget around our commitment to engage with the veteran community around how our allied health measures would operate. What we have always been very clear about is that this measure is about increasing access to allied health by making sure there are more allied health professionals providing services and that it's about making it easier for veterans to be able to access those services by removing the treatment cycle—having to continually go back to doctors to get further reports in order to get back to allied health services—and that, when it came to the threshold that we were putting in place instead for a much smaller proportion of veterans, we would always ensure that there was continuity of access and that we would engage with all of the veteran community in relation to how we made sure that we maintain that good access so that—

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

Has the minister concluded his answer? No. The member for Riverina, on a point of order?

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

It is based on relevance. I simply asked the minister to name one ex-service organisation which supports the cap—just one.

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

Yes. The minister was asked a specific question. But, as the member for Riverina knows, although the minister must be directly relevant, I can't compel the minister to answer in the way that the member would like. He won't be able to go into any opposition policy. He won't be able to compare and contrast. It was quite a detailed question. I'll ask him to conclude his answer.

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I was saying, we always said it was important that we would engage and are engaging—and I've been engaging and will continue to engage—with the veteran community, with ex-service organisations, to ensure that our program delivers continuity of care and access for veterans organisations. I've been pleased by the support that we've seen for it, and I look forward to continuing to engage with the community of ex-service organisations, veterans and families as we deliver that program and make sure that it delivers that improved access for our veteran community.