Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Again, I thank the senator very much for his question. As minister I have streamlined four committees into two which are providing internal advice to me. The first forum deals with the needs of our recently returned veterans, and that will be the Younger Veterans—Contemporary Needs Forum, which has combined the old Emerging Issues Forum and the Operational Working Party to focus specifically on the needs of younger and returned veterans. The other forum is the National Aged and Community Care Forum, which specifically addresses the challenges facing older veterans, and their health issues, and those faced by their families. I am confident this new approach will ensure the government receives the very best targeted advice about how we can tackle mental health challenges. As I said in my earlier answer to the senator, we spend $166 million on mental health services. We are doing more, but there is always more that can be done. We might need to recognise that in the last 20 years some 72,000 young— (Time expired)