Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Supporting Australian veterans is vital. It is something I am passionate about. I have many veterans in my community and to me, representing Australia’s only garrison city of Townsville, it is particularly important. Many of the soldiers who pass through Townsville are ultimately Australia’s veterans. With now up to 40,000 soldiers having been deployed over the last several years in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Timor and the Solomons, the numbers of veterans are significantly increasing.

The coalition has given its support to this particular bill, the Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill 2009, and certainly it has my support. The bill makes three changes to current measures relating to veterans pensions payments, access to the Defence Service Home Insurance Scheme and to dependants’ pensions.

The first change enables Veterans’ Affairs pensions and allowances to be paid into overseas bank accounts. Under the current provisions, anyone who lives outside Australia and receives a pension or payment under the Veterans’ Entitlement Act or the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act must have an Australian bank account. These payments were only able to be made into a bank or financial institution account in Australia. This measure in this bill is a sensible measure in that it allows payments to be made to an overseas bank account. It moves with the times. It recognises where we are these days and how we operate in the world. It will reduce the financial burdens for veterans who live overseas and will provide greater support and flexibility for them, so it has my support. It will certainly bring the payment of veterans affairs pensions into line with other Commonwealth payments.

The bill also extends the eligibility for the Defence Service Home Insurance Scheme. This measure will now allow members of the ADF who are entitled to receive assistance under the new Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme to access building and contents insurance. I believe that about 7,500 Australian Defence Force and reserve members will be able to gain access to the insurance scheme. That is a good outcome and it supports our Defence families. This measure will support the ADF. It is very important. It will assist particularly with retention of Defence Force personnel by providing them with even greater support.

The final change in this bill is to cease payment of a majority of dependants’ pensions. Previously, dependants of a veteran who were receiving a disability pension for incapacity were, in some situations, also eligible for a pension. The maximum payment has been $8.42 per fortnight for a partner or widow and $2.86 per fortnight for children. The minimum payments are as low as 84c for partners and 29c for children per fortnight. These pensions have not increased in many years, and there have been no new grants since 1985.

Under the measures in this bill, the dependant pensions will cease and those currently receiving such pensions will be given a lump sum equal to three years of the payments. The dependants pensions will cease on 22 September 2009 and the lump sum payment will be made on 24 September 2009. That payment will be exempt from income tax. Any existing war widow or war widower and orphan pensions are not affected by this change and their payments will continue. As the payment level for dependant pensions has been so low, a lump sum payment in September this year may be more beneficial to many families—I believe it will be.

The coalition supports these measures; however, it is important that the Rudd government clarify several issues relating to the dependants pension. It must be made clear how many people will be affected by the payments ceasing. These people must be told by the government whether those currently receiving a dependants pension will receive another form of compensation after the three-year period of the lump sum ends. That is important to the veterans community, and they will be looking for that explanation from the Rudd government.

We have seen in recent months that the Rudd government has been engaged in reckless spending. This is having a significant impact on veterans. The Labor government had made very few announcements for veterans. They promised reviews, but two very important reviews have been given a lengthy two-year time frame for completion. The two which have been delayed are the review into the cost of pharmaceuticals for war-caused conditions and the review of the operation of the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004. The member for Paterson very clearly articulated this in his contribution in relation to this debate. Two other important reviews have been undertaken—the Clarke review and the military super review—but no announcements by the government have been made for either, and we certainly need that information to come forward. The veterans communities are very eagerly looking forward to that, and I think that they are starting to realise that they have been let down by commitments made by the Rudd government in the run-up to the last election.

It is very interesting. I was having a look at the promises broken by the current government yesterday, and it is quite extraordinary to see the number of very important and significant promises and expectations that were given to the community at the time of the last election that have been either ruled out or, in fact, forgotten about.

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