Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Well, at long last we've finally got the Labor Party here, doing the right thing—doing what this chamber sought to do when we last sat. We sought to give the respect that our veterans' community needed prior to Remembrance Day when Senator Pocock and others moved a motion to discharge this incredibly bad bill, the Defence Amendment (Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal) Bill 2025, from the Notice Paper. And do you know what the Labor Party did? They stood up and fought it every step of the way. They knew it was a friendless bill then, but they could not give our veterans' community the respect that they deserve by discharging this bill prior to them gathering on Remembrance Day.

Even as late as last week, Minister Keogh was trying to resurrect this bill. He was trying to move amendments with the shadow minister, Darren Chester, who has done an amazing job standing with our veterans' community, consulting with them and not taking a backwards step when it comes to showing our veterans' community which side of parliament stands with their service for our country—that is, the Liberal Party and the Nationals. Minister Keogh has finally realised what the opposition and veterans' community have been saying from day one: that this bill is completely unwanted, unsupported and indefensible—this bill saying somehow you can put a timeframe on recognising service in our ADF, on foreign shores.

The Senate had a chance to end this debacle when we last sat. Yet, as I recall, when we stood up—when Senator Pocock stood up to speak, when Senator Shoebridge stood up to speak and when I stood up to speak—to discharge this bill from the Notice Paper, the Labor Party took every single opportunity it could to stop us from speaking and standing up for our veterans' community. It's great to see Senator Pocock and Senator Shoebridge here to celebrate the Labor Party finally coming to its senses. The question has to be: why today, when we've already put a notice on the Notice Paper to discharge the bill tomorrow? Why not just let the Senate do its work? Senator Chisholm runs in to do the Prime Minister's bidding, to discharge the bill. Where were you last time, Senator Chisholm? I didn't see you standing up to discharge this bill. It's another example of the hubris, the hypocrisy and the arrogance of this government when it comes to standing with our veteran community.

Even as late as last night, when I was at church over in Reid, at St John's, a member of our veterans community came up to me and said: 'We have to discharge this bill. Please, Senator, can you help us?' There is a lot of angst out there in the broader community about the Labor Party's failure to listen. I want to congratulate the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee for handing down its report into this bad bill, and the coalition for its strong dissenting report into this bad legislation. I'm glad Minister Keogh spent the weekend reading the coalition's dissenting report and I'm glad he has come to his senses overnight.

Ex-service organisations and even the independent tribunal have repeatedly warned the government that this bill will be harming veterans wellbeing, because it essentially says that the Australian government thinks that there is a time limit on service recognition. We know that whether it is a decade, two decades, four decades, five decades post an incident in the theatre of war, or even in peacekeeping duties, our servicemen and women deserve to be recognised, that research uncovers deeds of valour and courage that need to be recognised. For the children and grandchildren in particular of deceased veterans, the time limit was incredibly hurtful and harmful to their wellbeing, and yet Labor, despite hearing from veterans communities, ploughed on regardless—very typical of its approach—dismissing the very people it claims to support.

Now the government are clinging to this unsalvageable legislation by offering vague promises of more consultation, so it is very heartening today that they are here discharging this very bad bill, and it is incredibly disappointing, and yet typical of their arrogance, that they couldn't do that prior to Remembrance Day. And do you know why? Simply because they didn't want this chamber to do its job. They think that somehow this chamber doesn't have the right to discharge bad legislation. They tried every little technical trick in the book to stop the Senate doing in a timely fashion what we're going to do this morning.

This bill is an affront to every Australian who has had the privilege and the responsibility to wear our uniform. It represents a betrayal of trust, a cynical attempt to remove the rights of veterans and their families to seek justice, recognition and independent review. This bill doesn't solve a problem; it creates one. The Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal, the very body targeted by this legislation, warned unequivocally that the changes proposed under the bill that we're discharging today will abolish and curtail current and significant rights of ADF members, veterans, their families and others to seek independent merit review of Defence decisions.

We don't think the Defence Force, the defence department, is beyond being accountable to the parliament, to the Senate chamber. We think it should be held responsible. We don't think that every decision that Defence makes should be accepted without question, and neither does our community.