David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Chisholm and the government for moving this motion to withdraw this bill. I welcome the minister's commitment to further consultation, but I don't understand the urgency of this bill. This is a bad bill. This bill sought to strip veterans and defence personnel of their rights to appeal a decision to the independent Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal. It was done under the guise of supporting veterans and defence personnel, and I think that is a big part of the reason why the Senate has fought so hard against this bill.

There are people that I represent here in the ACT who have a white card and are struggling to find a GP, and yet this is the legislation that this Senate is spending time on when it comes to veterans. We're having a Senate inquiry. We're spending time debating these things when we've had a royal commission. We have veterans urging us to do more to support them and their families, and yet we're debating this bill. In the words of the chair of the tribunal, Mr Stephen Skehill:

… in what parallel universe can Defence even contemplate claiming that the wellbeing of its people is enhanced by stripping them of their present rights to challenge Defence decisions that they believe wrongly deny them a Defence honour or award? The bill works against the wellbeing of defence personnel, notwithstanding that Defence says that is imperative.

No compelling reason was given as to why this bill was necessary. All we were told was that the tribunal had requested changes, but, when we asked the tribunal, they told us—and here is another quote from Mr Skehill:

The committee should not be beguiled by this submission. It does not withstand critical analysis. For reasons that I will explain, the Defence submission is deeply flawed. It contains errors of fact and errors of law, and, perhaps more importantly, it is grossly misleading because of both what it says and, more particularly, what it fails to say.

One of the troubling things about this bill was that there was absolutely no consultation on this bill. I thank my Senate colleagues for sending a very clear message to the government that we expect you to go through a process of consultation before you bring forward legislation.

Across 75 submissions made to the inquiry into this bill, just one submission supported the bill, and that was of course Defence's submission. The minister did pop into an ex-service organisation's roundtable to flag the bill, but that was apparently so cursory that they didn't even think to include it in the minutes of that meeting. It cannot have been a substantive debate. When I asked people who were at the meeting, they couldn't even remember it. When I asked the National President of RSL Australia whether he'd been consulted on the bill, he replied:

No, not specifically to discuss this bill. I've had meetings with the minister to discuss veterans' issues generally. I think the only discussion I've had with the minister in relation to this bill would have been by telephone, because I don't recall physically meeting in relation to this particular bill.

This sort of bill makes out our job difficult, but I would suggest that it makes the government's job even more difficult. I find it truly baffling that this was the priority bill, and the first bill, that the government brought to the Senate for veterans in this term. Instead of stripping people of their rights to review, I would really urge the government to focus on implementing the recommendations of the royal commission into veteran suicides.

How many of Defence's resources have gone into this friendless bill and will continue to go into this friendless bill when you could be implementing the 100-plus recommendations made by the royal commission? Here are just a few that I think should really be a priority for this government. There's recommendation 20, allowing victims of sexual violence in the Australian Defence Force to make a victim impact statement to the service tribunal. Recommendation 25 is on conducting a formal inquiry into military sexual violence in the ADF. There are 12 recommendations relating to sexual violence in the ADF. Implementing these should be a priority. That should have been the first bill that came to this chamber. Or how about recommendation 65—that the ADF is ensuring mental health screening for those who are at heightened risk of suicide. That seems pretty basic to me. These are the things the government and the Senate should be working on. Recommendation 70 is to improve the protocols for responding to a veteran experiencing a suicidal crisis so that it actually aligns with best practice. Recommendation 71 is increasing the rebates paid through DVA so that veterans can actually get health care. Here in the ACT, as I said at the start, veterans are increasingly being turned away or being asked to pay a whopping gap fee.

Let's focus on these, recognise the service of veterans and their families and actually work to support them. We have a recruitment and retainment crisis, and yet we're not looking after the very people who have put their lives on the line—who sacrifice so much, as do their families—as they move around this country to serve the Australian people. There's so much that we could be doing. This bill ain't it. I welcome the government withdrawing this, and I thank the Senate for their support.