Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I oppose schedule 1 in the following terms:

(1) Schedule 1, item 45, page 13 (line 19) to page 14 (line 2), TO BE OPPOSED.

This amendment drops the Henry VIII clause altogether from the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment (Defence Force) Bill 2017, known as the DRCA. A Henry VIII clause added to DRCA effectively handballs parliament's legislative function to the executive branch of government. It gives the government unfettered power to make regulations modifying the operation of the act itself. That would be unprecedented in the history of Australia's veterans entitlement law. My amendment to scrap the Henry VIII clause has the support of our nation's leading ex-services organisations, including the Returned and Services League of Australia, the Alliance of Defence Service Organisations, or ADSO, the Defence Force Welfare Association, and the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans Association, among many other ESOs.

The report The constant battle: suicide by veterans, by the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, noted concerns about the adequacy of staff training and recommended a review of its training. Further, the committee recommended that a Productivity Commission study be completed within 18 months on Australia's veterans legislative framework. Granting additional powers to the executive branch of government under the provision of a Henry VIII clause is bad policy, given the current situation with the chaotic legislative framework as well as the shortcomings of the Department of Veterans' Affairs—and there are many of them, as indicated in the report The constant battle: suicide by veterans. This delegation of legislative power to the executive branch of government will likely serve as a slippery slope.

The foreign affairs, defence and trade committee recommended that the Productivity Commission review Australia's complex veterans legislation. So why has the government brought the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment (Defence Force) Bill 2017 on for consideration before the review could even be conducted—or you people taking 90 days to even decide whether you're going to conduct that? That would be the best way forward.