Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia owes a debt of gratitude and more to our veterans, those men and women of Australia who gave so much for their country. As a nation, we honour them. This legislation, like so many other pieces of government legislation, demonstrates that recognition and support that the nation and the nation through the parliament has for those who have served their country.

In every town and village across Australia, there are memorials and monuments to our serving men and women, demonstrating the nation's thanks. That is no better demonstrated and exemplified by the wonderful building and displays at the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra, which is the most visited public institution in this city. That memorial is a clear indication of how Australians from over the centuries have recognised and honoured our veterans. I might say, in talking about the Australian War Memorial, what a wonderful job the current director, Dr Brendan Nelson, is doing in that particular facility. It has always been good and it goes from strength to strength.

Before I get onto the terms of the bill as such, I will just also pause for a moment to pay my regards and give our thanks to all of those groups in Australia who support the veterans. Clearly, as Senator Back has just mentioned, that starts with the Department of Veterans' Affairs, which over the decades has done a wonderful job in supporting veterans. The minister, Senator Ronaldson, has done an exemplary job since he has been in charge. Indeed, veterans' affairs ministers over many, many years have understood the importance of supporting and acknowledging the work that our veterans do. In addition to those in government and in this building, there are organisations right around Australia that do a wonderful job in support and advocacy for veterans. The principal of those organisations is clearly the Returned and Services League, which since almost the First World War has been providing support, advocacy, welfare and comradeship to veterans and providing a patriotism that the country can well follow.

My office is located in the northern city of Townsville. We often refer to it as a garrison city, because we are delighted to have the Lavarack Barracks in that city, which is the largest army barracks in Australia, as well as a significant Air Force base at Garbutt. Not far up the road in Cairns, we have Australia's second largest east coast naval base at HMAS Cairns. In those areas, I am well aware and well familiar with the work done to support our serving and our past service men and women by organisations like the RSL.

Because I live in the garrison city of Townsville, I interact a lot and I see the work that the Townsville RSL do to support veterans and to acknowledge the memory of those who have fallen in battle. I want to pay tribute to Bill Whitburn OAM, the current president of the RSL, and his predecessor, Mr Rod McLeod, who was there for many years and who did a wonderful job supporting veterans. I should also mention Tom Penrose, vice president; John Somers, vice president; Steve Cottam, treasurer; Squizzy Taylor; Michael Johnson OAM; David Twigg; Garry Player; Jon Daniels; and the members of the board of the Townsville RSL.

I mention the Townsville RSL particularly because I know it. They have this wonderful approach: for any battle that has ever been fought that Australians have played a significant part in, the Townsville RSL makes sure that that event is remembered and is recognised. They do that just so well. There are a lot of other groups, like the Vietnam Veterans' Association and Soldier On. There are many others; I should not start naming one or two, because you will always miss dozens of others. To all of those groups who so ably and committedly support our veterans, I want to acknowledge them and give my thanks to them.

Along the same lines, I will just acknowledge a group that in recent years has done so much to honour the memory of those who have died in the service of their country. I have mentioned the Avenue of Honour on the Atherton Tablelands near Yungaburra, which was the brainchild of Gordon and Susan Chuck, whose son was killed in Afghanistan, and others of that community—Annie Cork, Sharon Linwood, Kerry Kehoe, Peter Williams and Mike Williams—who all got together to plan and build the Avenue of Honour, which was opened by the then Prime Minister and the then Leader of the Opposition in 2013. That again shows the wonderful support that Australians give to those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of the freedoms that their country enjoys.

I want to deal now with the provisions of the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (2015 Budget Measures) Bill 2015 and to start with the area of the bill dealing with the single appeal path. These amendments refine the current dual appeal path under the act to a single path review. Clients who do not like the decision of the first decision maker are able to seek a review of that decision by the Veterans' Review Board, with the next right of appeal being to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Currently there is a dual appeal path which seems to have been arrived at by default. It is an unwieldy system that creates complexities that can make the choice less than straightforward and add a level of concern to people who are applying to use that process.

The amendments which have been proposed by Minister Ronaldson have the strong endorsement of the veteran and ex-service community. I am delighted to see that they also have the strong support of the Labor Party. I note that Mr Feeney, former Senator Feeney, speaking less than a month ago on behalf of the Labor Party on 20 August 2015, said:

Labor supports this bill because it represents a modest improvement to entitlements of and services to veterans.

…   …   …

I commend this bill to the House.

That was the Labor spokesman speaking when this bill went through the House of Representatives less than a month ago. I repeat his final sentence:

I commend this bill to the House.

Mr Feeney—who, as I said, is the Labor spokesman—said on 6 September that he believed the amendment proposed by the government would actually speed up the appeals process. He said the review process began under the government of which he was a member back in 2007 and to date no-one had made any arguments against the changes—that is, since 2007 when, as Mr Feeney says, the former government started looking at this. Mr Feeney said:

It makes sense to have a single appeal pathway via the Veterans Review Board.

He said that there could be further reviews of the system down the track to look at the length of time appeals were taking, but—and I emphasise this—he said:

That is not a reason not to do something constructive now.

I agree with Mr Feeney on that. There is no argument that has been raised in this debate or in debate in the other chamber that gives any reason for not doing something constructive now.

Mr Warren Snowdon, who was a Minister for Veterans' Affairs in times gone by, said:

This amendment has the support of ex-service organisations and I commend the government for putting it in.

Again, I agree with Mr Snowdon on that. Mr Graham Perrett, also speaking in the House of Representatives on 20 August, said:

The changes to be made to the review process under this bill will streamline the process into a single pathway, and that is a good thing. This part of the amendment has the full support of the ex-service organisations.

Again, Mr Perrett is correct. So I look forward to the Labor Party supporting that element of the amendments. I look forward to them supporting all elements of the amendment. I could not believe, after such a ringing endorsement and support from senior members of the Labor Party involved in this area of policy, that the Labor Party could possibly countenance any opposition to that amendment. I look forward to the support of the Australian Labor Party for that particular amendment.

The other parts of the amendment proposed by the government include legislative provisions dealing with the director of the Office of Australian War Graves. Current legislative provisions allow the War Graves Commission to repatriate deceased Australian military personnel from their place of interment in order to reinter those remains. There is no legislative provision, however, to enable the repatriation by dependents. Consistent with the announcement by Mr Tony Abbott on 25 May this year, families of veterans and dependents of Australian Defence Force personnel buried at Terendak Military Cemetery can elect to repatriate their loved ones. This amendment provides for that and clarifies the power in the Defence Act to give the director of the Office of Australian War Graves the legal authority to repatriate all those buried at Terendak subject to the wishes of the family.

The other element of this bill which I think is very important, and one I hope that all senators will support, relates to the Veterans' Vocational Rehabilitation Scheme. The Veterans' Vocational Rehabilitation Scheme is a voluntary vocational rehabilitation scheme for persons eligible under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986. The scheme is designed to assist eligible persons to find or continue in suitable employment. These changes include an increase in the range of rehabilitation scheme services to include physiological and medical management services. Importantly, they remove disincentives to participation in the scheme, through a more favourable adjustment to pension payments for those who are in receipt of above general rate pensions, such as the special rate or the TPI.

I will explain in a little bit more detail what those adjustments to the pension payments mean. They mean: firstly, that intermediate rate recipients who participate in the scheme will not receive less disability pension than an intermediate rate recipient who does not participate in the scheme; secondly, special rate disability pension recipients who participate in the scheme and who undertake less than 20 hours paid work per week will not receive less pension than an intermediate rate recipient who does not participate in the VVRS; thirdly, a more reasonable pension reduction regime will follow any prolonged absence from the workforce and will avoid disadvantage to participants who start the scheme but experience lengthy absences from the workforce; and fourthly, these provisions provide that an amount equivalent to the permissible earnings for special and intermediate rate recipients will be disregarded for Veterans' Vocational Rehabilitation Scheme participants when determining whether the person's reduced daily pension amount should be increased and will give them the same benefit from permissible earnings as is received by non-participants in the Veterans' Vocational Rehabilitation Scheme.

These three broad areas of amendment are all worthy of support. As I say, the minister, as his normal way, has consulted widely with veterans themselves and with veterans support and advocacy organisations. He has brought these legislative proposals to the parliament so that we can, as a nation, continue to provide the most favourable and the most beneficial support possible for those who have served their country so well in the past. I think it perhaps fitting in this year that we celebrate the centenary of the landing at Anzac Cove that we continue the work done by many governments over many years to support veterans and their dependents. I congratulate Minister Ronaldson on the work that he has done on this particular bill, on the amendments that we are debating today, but also on the work he has done particularly in this very significant year of Australia's commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. It has been a labour of love, I know, for the minister. But there is no denying that these things are never easy. Getting the money, getting the support of cabinet, and getting all the ends tied up and the pieces put together in the jigsaw puzzle is always a challenge. I congratulate Senator Ronaldson not only on bringing this bill forward today but on the work that he has done throughout the past 12 months on the Centenary of Anzac celebration. I commend the bill, in its entirety, to the Senate.