Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I would like to talk about the Veterans’ Entitlements Legislation Amendment (2007 Election Commitments) Bill 2008 but more about those within our community who do a lot of work and support veterans and others. Just as a little bit of a run-through of the bill itself, this is an election promise that has been delivered, providing more money for veterans and their families. In addition to the $6.34 billion this government will spend on compensation and income support pensions, this record veterans affairs budget provides $4 million for veteran mental health, focusing on the vital area of suicide prevention; $14.9 million over four years to ex-service organisations to boost their capacity to support the veteran community; and $20 million to secure the future of the historic Graythwaite estate in North Sydney and the provision of aged services provided by the RSL. This is in contrast to the previous government, who never funded their promises. Veterans did not have to wait for this budget to benefit from the change of government. Effective from 20 March, the veteran community received increased pensions for war widows, widowers and disability pensioners via fairer indexation—indexation of up to $1,045 each per year—increased carers payments of between $600 and $1,600 per carer and increased telephone and utilities allowance. The federal budget overall is a financially responsible budget. The bulk of veterans and war widows live on fixed incomes and therefore have a greater appreciation of the need to manage Australia’s inflationary pressures.

See this speech in context