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

Through you, Acting Deputy President, do you think that former Minister Snowdon would have been such an enthusiastic supporter of this schedule if he had not consulted with the ex-service organisation? Of course not, and it beggars belief to think anything else. But we have heard Mr Perrett in the other place and we have heard Mr Snowdon in the other place, and the shadow minister himself—who has constantly supported every aspect of this bill—gets a phone call from Slater and Gordon three days out and all of a sudden the world has changed, it is a different world. I challenge Senator Feeney and I challenge Senator Lambie to vote for this matter in its entirety when it comes back—vote to take a complex and costly system out, to support those younger veterans that Mr Perrett in the other place referred to, and to make this a non-adversarial process as the VEA has always been. If you want to choose adversarial over non-adversarial, that is entirely your choice. That is not what the veterans' community want; they want the VEA single pathway process because it has worked and they want it because it is good for veterans—it is less costly, less complex and less imposing on them. We have gone down this path because we believe the ex-service community is right. That you have gone down this path through the Australian Labor Party is a reflection on you.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The question is that the government's amendment on sheet 7755, referring schedule 2 to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee and deferring further consideration of the bill until after the committee presents its report, be agreed to.

Question agreed to.

Original question, as amended, agreed to.

Bill read a second time.