Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (MRCA Supplement) Bill 2011. The primary purpose of this bill is to amend the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004, relating to the payment of certain allowances to war widows. This is necessary due to unintended consequences of the government’s changes to pensions as part of the Harmer review which amended legislation in 2009. The act provides compensation for and other benefits to current and former members of the Australian Defence Force who suffered an injury or disease due to service on or after 1 July 2004. It also provides for the dependants of members whose deaths were the result of an injury or disease due to service on or after 1 July 2004. The bill ensures that wholly dependent partners of a deceased Defence Force member or former member will be eligible to receive the MRCA supplement, while preventing duplicate payments of the MRCA supplement to persons who are entitled to equivalent payments under a different act.

I acknowledge that this bill could potentially affect 105 war widow pensioners in my electorate of Solomon who are current clients of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs—as of 1 October 2010. However, it is important to note that, while this is largely a housekeeping bill, it will ensure that the benefits are not paid to those who are not entitled to them under this act and who, as a result, will no longer have the potential to be in debt to the Commonwealth.

Another veterans affairs issue that the parliament is debating at the moment—it is currently before the Senate—is the coalition’s military superannuation reform legislation, the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Amendment (Fair Indexation) Bill 2010. The bill will improve the indexation of Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits, DFRDB, Scheme superannuation pensions from 1 July this year. I am pleased to say that this means that eligible superannuants aged 55 and over on 1 July 2011 will have their military superannuation pensions indexed in the same way as Australian government income support pensions such as the service pension. This is the single biggest issue in the veterans and ex-service community. It has long been called for, and it has the full support of the ex-service community. I remind other members here today that the coalition remains the only party in the parliament committed to military superannuation reform. I take this opportunity to call on all parties in this parliament and, in particular, the Labor Party to support this legislation when it is debated in the House.

The coalition welcomes the release of the review of the military compensation arrangements, which were publicly released on 18 March. It should be noted, however, that this review is some 12 months late. Nevertheless, this is a significant review into a new and complex piece of legislation.

The coalition is committed to an extensive consultation on the review’s findings and is pleased that the Gillard Labor government has agreed to a period of consultation until 30 June 2011. During this consultation, the coalition will endeavour to liaise with key stakeholders in the service, ex-service and veteran community about the recommendations in the review of the military compensation arrangements.

Finally, with Anzac Day—a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand to commemorate the lives lost and honour those members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli and Turkey during World War I—under five weeks away, it is a very timely welcome to the eleventh-hour rescue package for the Australian War Memorial. This is despite the fact that the government had to be dragged kicking and screaming into making an announcement, which is an absolute utter disgrace.

See this speech in context