Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee report is on adaptive sport programs for Australian Defence Force veterans. I want to talk about an organisation in my neck of the woods, in Ulverstone in north-west Tasmania, called Due South. Due South is a self-funded organisation. They set their sights on delivering world-class wellness initiatives for veterans and first responders. It's an amazing place actually. I've spent quite a bit of time there. In fact, Matt Thistlethwaite, who is the Assistant Minister for Veterans' Affairs, and I are going to open their community wellness and reconnection centre, which has a hydrotherapy pool attached to it, later on this month.

Peter and Barry basically set this up by buying a motel that funds the operation of what they do in the other parts of Due South. They have a 90/10 principal, where 90 per cent of any funds that are raised or donated are put back into the resources et cetera and no more than 10 per cent of the money goes into admin. The last time I spoke to Peter, which was only a couple of weeks ago, he indicated to me that there had been no funds to come out in relation to admin at all, so everything had been put back in, and they were being run by volunteers. They have a motel, which they use, but they also have a function centre. That is all operated by volunteers.

The organisation also owns three homes around the township of Ulverstone, which is my hometown. For six months of the year, they use those three homes and the motel facility to house seasonal workers who come for the seasonal worker program on the north-west coast. Part of the income that they get for those rentals also goes back into running the property. For the other six months of the year, the houses and the motel are opened up to first responders and veterans from all over the country. They have a lot of mainland veterans who come down for R&R, rest and relaxation, support. Among the services that they provide there, they have a farm, they have a wellness centre, and they have an off-grid property. They take the veterans and first responders on all sorts of support programs. They take them fishing. It's amazing what they do.

They're about to open a range of support services at the property at Ulverstone that will be around mental and physical health, advocacy services for veterans, wellbeing and legal support. Importantly, part of what they do is about social connection. One of the mantras that they have is to invite the community in. They are very proud and insist on opening the doors for the community to come in. One of the things they talk about when veterans are discharged through health or whatever—they quite often have operated for quite a few years in a veteran community, and they come back to their hometown and they feel very isolated. They are used to a regime, and it's very difficult to adjust. This allows them to have some social connection and provides support for them, but it also, as I said, provides a lot of other opportunities for these guys to support people.

It's a very unique property. It's a very unique organisation. The fact it is run by volunteers and has all sorts of different possibilities for veterans and first responders is amazing. It's the only place that I know of its kind in the country. It is the only place where both veterans and first responders are welcomed equally. I know that a lot of first responders I speak to, whether they be paramedics, firefighters or police, quite often need some of that reality, away from their job, to do things. This is a great organisation, and I can't wait to get there to open it. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.