Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Lambie, I thank you for the question and also for alerting my office of your interest in this policy area. You're right that the royal commission told us a great deal about what veterans required and the shortcomings in the experience veterans had had in the period post service. We are determined to act on it.

The royal commission had a particular focus on the broader wellbeing of Defence personnel, veterans and families, and it was really aimed at preventing harm and supporting early intervention, and the government's approach really reflects that. We have shifted our focus to that lifetime wellbeing accordingly. Some of the concrete actions include the establishment of the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission, and a wellbeing agency will be up and running this year. We've also released a Defence And Veteran Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Critically in the 2025-26 MYEFO the government provided $58.3 million over three years to strengthen mental health support for veterans across the continuum of care. That includes expanded access to mental health treatment plans to provide proactive continuous and connected care for veterans experiencing mental health conditions. Those new arrangements will commence from 1 July 2026. As part of the 2025-26 budget, the last budget, we also extended the Military and Veteran Psychiatry Training Program. That provides psychiatry registrar training placement in military and veteran mental health. That initiative seeks to improve access to psychiatrists who have specialist training in veteran and trauma focused care.

It's also important that we've worked to speed up processing times for claims. What that means, as I'm sure you understand, is that support can flow to veterans faster, and we're working to improve that because we know that that, in turn, has an impact on veterans' mental health.