Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am used to ignoring a lot of noise that comes from that side, because my focus, like the government's, is razor-sharp on serving the Australian people, and no-one deserves our respect and attention more than those veterans who've served our nation and the cause of democracy. Forty-two thousand of them were left hanging under the Liberal and National parties, and they say they want to cut funding. When they were there and they cut spending, we ended up with that backlog.

As of 31 January 2024, the number of claims that were yet to be allocated had fallen from 42,000 to 3,697. That is a good investment of Australian taxpayers' dollars. It is about doing the right thing, and it's just one policy area that Labor is attending to that will increase, and will continue to increase, in the national interest.