Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

The Government's commitment to improving support to veterans never stops. Today I introduce legislation to the Senate that will cut red-tape and streamline assistance to veterans and improve their wellbeing.

The Government's reforms address recommendations made by Mr David Tune AO PSM in his Independent Review into the TPI Payment and the Productivity Commission's report A Better Way to Support Veterans.

The Government has listened to the needs of the veteran community and announced through the 2021-22 Budget its intention to bring forward these important changes to 1 January 2022 − more than eight months earlier than first announced.

These reforms will simplify the administration of some payments for veterans and their dependents.

This will be done by exempting Disability Payments from Income Testing under the Social Security Act 1991 for 14,000 veterans and dependents.

The Government will also increase access to rent assistance for our most disabled veterans.

This will benefit approximately 6,900 veterans and their dependents.

Specifically, the first Schedule will implement the Government's commitment to exempt the Adjusted Disability Pension − defined in the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 − from the income test under the Social Security Act.

This will remove the need for the Defence Force Income Support Allowance, known as DFISA.

Introduced in 2004, DFISA was paid as a top-up to ensure that veterans who received an age pension under the Social Security Act,were not financially disadvantaged.

Changes in this schedule will ensure that veterans will receive the same payment as before, but the administrative process will be much simpler.

While an administrative change, this will make DFISA redundant and this Bill will remove all relevant references to DFISA from the Veterans' Entitlements Act.

The second Schedule will remove the 'disability income rent test' from the Veterans' Entitlements Act.

This will mean that disabled veterans will now have access to the same rent assistance as those who receive it from Centrelink.

This will increase rent assistance payable, or enable some disabled veterans to receive rent assistance for the first time.

The 'disability income rent test' results in severely disabled veterans receiving less rent assistance than those with a lower level of disability.

In particular, this measure will benefit Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI) veterans who presently do not receive any rent assistance due to the amount of compensation they receive.

The third Schedule will remove references to the term 'Disability Pension' in the Veterans' Entitlements Act.

In future, this payment will be referred to as the 'Disability Compensation Payment'.

This change will clarify that these payments are compensation and will reduce the potential for the payment to be confused with Department of Social Services disability support pensions.

The measures contained in these first three Schedules will commence on 1 January 2022.

The Bill's fourth Schedule relates to the simplification of pension indexation.

Currently the Extreme Disablement Adjustment, Intermediate Rate and Special Rate pensions − colloquially known as the 'TPI payment' − are split into two components for indexation purposes.

Each is indexed separately.

The fourth Schedule will remove this anomaly, so that the whole amount is indexed as one.

This measure will commence on 20 September 2022.

This will simplify DVA's legislation, policy and procedures.

It will also help avoid confusion for veterans about the purpose and structure of the Extreme Disablement Adjustment, Intermediate and Special rates of disability pension.

The fifth Schedule in the Bill introduces a pilot program for earlier access to rehabilitation.

This non-liability rehabilitation pilot will enable individuals to commence DVA-funded rehabilitation before a liability decision has been made under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 or the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988.

The Government announced this measure in the 2021-22 Budget in response to Recommendation 6.3 from the Productivity Commission's Report A Better Way to Support Veterans.

This Report had noted that existing legislative requirements made it challenging to provide timely rehabilitation services.

Under these amendments, a two-year pilot will be established to bridge that gap to enable veterans to start their rehabilitation program sooner.

This measure aims to encourage, and enable access to, voluntary rehabilitation for 100 veterans for each of the two years of the pilot.

As the Australian Defence Veterans' Covenant states: 'For what they have done, this we will do'.

Australia owes a great debt of gratitude to all our veterans.

This Bill provides new measures to better support the wellbeing of them and their families.

We want our veterans to know that Australia is proud of them and that our country will always be there for them.

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor will be supporting the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Exempting Disability Payments from Income Testing and Other Measures) Bill 2021 as it will improve and streamline assistance to veterans and improve their wellbeing. However, we know it's not what most totally and permanently incapacitated veterans want. We know that most want an increase in the TPI payment.

Labor condemns the Morrison-Joyce government for its failure to accept the recommendation of the recent Senate inquiry that the TPI payment be increased. This would ensure that our most disabled veterans are not left behind. The government's response to this bipartisan inquiry was a huge slap in the face for Australia's 27,000 TPI veterans, and it goes to show that this is a government that's all about the announcement but never about delivery when it comes to Australia's veterans.

The Australian Federation of Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Ex-Servicemen and Women has been raising the issue of the TPI payment for several years, but the government has completely ignored their concerns. Before the 2019 election the Prime Minister effectively promised to increase the payment, but since then he has ignored the pleas of TPI veterans, and his own colleagues' advice, and failed to raise the pension. After sitting on a review of the TPI payment for more than a year Scott Morrison announced in last year's budget that he would only provide rent assistance to a small proportion of TPI veterans, leaving most disgusted that they would miss out. In response to Labor's questions in Senate estimates last year, it was revealed that these benefits would not start to flow until September 2022 when they make changes to legislation and IT systems. It's good they've brought this forward to January 2022, following pressure from Labor and TPI veterans, but they're cutting it fine to have them pass.

So Labor will not stand in the way of this legislation but, along with many TPI veterans, we believe these tokenistic measures are just not good enough and that our veterans and families deserve much better.

Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Gallagher has already mentioned, Labor knows that our veterans need more assistance. While the changes being proposed today are relatively modest at best, as foreshadowed by my colleagues earlier, we will be supporting this bill on the understanding that it is a positive step in supporting those who have served our nation. There can be no greater undertaking that a citizen can pursue for their country than to put their life in danger to see its interests advanced abroad and to secure the safety of their neighbour. I'm certain that those who sit with us in this chamber who have undertaken to provide such service to their nation will attest, with their own personal experience, to the sacrifice that is involved. It is a sacrifice that is made gladly but a sacrifice nonetheless. As those who sit in this place with the responsibility of providing for these dedicated men and women post service, it is incumbent upon us all to never forget the solemn debt we owe these Australians. Indeed, some may say this debt is one we can never hope to repay, yet it falls to us to do whatever little we can to strive towards this most noble end.

This bill contains some commonsense changes that will simplify and streamline assistance to veterans. It addresses recommendations that were made by David Tune's 2019 review. Exempting disability payments from income testing, as proposed by this bill, will simplify the payment arrangements for many veterans and dependants—around 14,000. It will also increase access to rent assistance for many in the veterans community; around 7,000 veterans and their dependants will benefit. While any measure that helps our veterans is certainly welcome, it is hard not to see this proposed legislation as somewhat tokenistic when TPI veterans are asking for an increase in their payments.

The Australian Federation of Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Ex Servicemen and Women highlighted that the government's rent-assistance changes in response to the Tune review benefited only 10 per cent of veterans. They rightly argued that all veterans relying on TPI payments need a substantial increase. In response to the TPI federation's concerns, Labor initiated an inquiry into the payment, which recommended an increase, but the government has refused. This has left many of us wondering why the coalition government continues to ignore the Senate inquiry's recommendations with regard to increasing such payments. Why is it that the Morrison government is ignoring calls from our veteran community to increase these payments? Deep down, many of us already know the answer to these questions. Put simply, it's because this government thinks it can simply walk away from the problem. The coalition appears to view our veterans, particularly those who are struggling through no fault of their own, as just another political problem, just another topic to spin an answer to until the news cycle moves on, or until the election. We must condemn this government's refusal to accept the recommendations of the bipartisan Senate inquiry. It's an insult to the 27,000 Australian veterans who depend on TPI payments.

This government is so caught up in crisis after crisis that it has forgotten why we're all here. We're here to serve the Australian community. While we will of course have different ideas about how to solve the problems that our country faces, surely we can all agree that our national government must provide more support for those who served their country and their families and who have made the sacrifices defending our rights and liberties. Unlike the Morrison-Joyce government, Labor treats the concerns of our veterans seriously—not as a political problem to be dealt with or managed. No matter the political challenges, no matter what other priorities a government may have, we must always put the welfare of our veterans first. We had a unanimous recommendation from the bipartisan Senate inquiry this year to increase the TPI payment. But every day that has passed since is just another day that this Prime Minister and his government has ignored our veterans.

We are glad that the pressure from Labor and the TPI Federation has pushed the government to bring this rent assistance measure forward from their original commencement date of 20 September 2022 to 1 January 2022. While, as I said, these measures are welcome and have Labor's support, it must be recognised that there is still much more for us to do in this place to improve the welfare of our veterans in this country.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Exempting Disability Payments from Income Testing and Other Measures) Bill 2021 to the Senate. I thank senators for their contributions.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.