Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tackling mental health challenges for veterans and their families was one of the four pillars of our plan for veterans, that we took to the last election. The Abbott government recognises the unique nature of military service and this bill reflects that commitment. The Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Mental Health and Other Measures) Bill 2014 will improve access to mental health services for current and former members of the ADF and their families and it will enhance the operations of the Veterans' Review Board and make other improvements to the veterans' affairs services and administration. With Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera adjacent to the Brisbane electorate, this will further strengthen our commitment to look after our veterans following on from the introduction of legislation to cover fair indexation introduced to the parliament in March of this year.

Other groups that are based in my electorate of Brisbane who will benefit from this bill are: Legacy Brisbane; the head office of the Returned and Services League of Australia, Queensland Branch; the RAAF Association, Queensland Division; the Queensland association of the Australian Federation of Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Ex Servicemen and Women; the War Widows Guild of Queensland; the Australian Region of Ex Servicemen and Women; and the Defence Community Organisation.

While there are other organisations that have offices based outside of the Brisbane electorate, there are many members in the Brisbane area who reside there and they include members of the Submarines Association, the Naval Association of Australia, Gallipoli Barracks, Victoria Barracks and of course we have St Andrews War Memorial Hospital.

The number of individuals deployed since 1999 to 1 March 2014 is 72,376. We have had a huge number of our servicemen and women deployed on operations overseas in border security operations and including deployment in Operations Resolute, Relex, Cranberry, Teebone, Dirk, Mistral, Celesta, Sutton and Stanhope. We have had operations in the past in support of East Timor, operations supporting the Solomon Islands, and of course, Operation Slipper, the military contribution to the international campaign against terrorism, maritime security in the Middle East area of operations and countering piracy in the Gulf of Aden. There have also been many operations in support of Iraq including deployments. Many of my constituents have been deployed to Operations like Falconer, Catalyst, Riverbank, Blazer, Bastille, Desert Storm et cetera.

The bill contains several schedules and I want to go through details of each of these schedules as there is a particular aspect of how this bill will improve access to mental health services for current and former members of the ADF and their families. From 1 July 2014, there will be access to treatment under nonliability healthcare arrangements. These will be expanded to include diagnosed conditions of alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder regardless of whether that particular condition was service-related. From 1 July 2014, eligibility to treatment under nonliability healthcare arrangements for members of the Defence Force with peacetime service only will be expanded by removing the current cut-off date of 7 April 1994. That is very good measure. This measure will allow all of those with at least three years of continuous full-time and peacetime service to be eligible for that nonliability health care for post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depressive disorders and alcohol and substance use disorders.

Members who discharge before completing their three years continuous full-time service may also be eligible where discharge is on the grounds of invalidity or physical or mental incapacity to perform their duties. This means that treatment for mental health conditions of PTSD, anxiety and depressive disorders and alcohol and substance use disorders will be available without the need for the condition to be accepted as related to the member's service.

Mental health services for veterans, members and their families, in all those areas, will be further improved through the expansion of the client groups eligible for counselling through the Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service. And I just want to add to some comments made previously by the member for Canberra that many veterans' families are affected when veterans return home suffering from any of these disorders and the families also suffer with them.

From 1 July 2014, current and serving members with certain peacetime service will be eligible for counselling through the specialised services of the VVCS. This includes border protection service, service in a disaster zone either in Australia or overseas, service as a submariner and personnel involved in training accidents and members medically discharged.

There will be access to counselling services from the VVCS, and it will be extended to partners and dependent children up to the age of 26 of these newly-eligible groups, to partners' dependent children and to parents of members killed in service related incidents. It is recognised that military peacetime service has its own risks for exposure to traumatic events, and this impacts greatly on mental health.

Amendments relating to the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card and seniors supplement in schedule 3 will reduce the administrative burden on clients who travel overseas for more than six weeks. Currently, one of the requirements to regain eligibility for a seniors supplement for a person who is a holder of a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card and who travels overseas for more than six weeks, is a written claim and proof of that person's income details. The amendment will mean that card holders will be eligible for the seniors supplement on their return from overseas without needing to reclaim the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

In schedule 4 there are other significant measures. The bill will enhance the operation of the Veterans' Review Board. The Veterans' Review Board provides merit reviews of conditions relating to disability and war widow pensions, compensation and other entitlements under the Veterans' Entitlement Act and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act.

The bill also introduces a legislative framework for alternative dispute resolution processes, including conferencing and mediation. Additional improvements relate to case management, and the administration and procedural practices of the board are also expected to enable more effective management of the function of the board.

Some might view the changes in this view as 'legalising' the board, or turning the board into a replica of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal but that is not the case. These changes are designed to give the board a more modern and a much more efficient process. They will enable the board to supply alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and to resolve matters much more quickly and much more satisfactorily. This will prevent the need for hearings in many cases. There was extensive consultation with ex-service organisations on these matters in 2013, and there has been a wide degree of support for these particular reforms.

In schedule 5, the bill will make a technical amendment to the end date for the period of service in an operational area in schedule 2 of the Veterans' Entitlement Act. The amendment will not disadvantage any veteran, as the change to the date will align the period of service for that operational area with the dates of the instrument for allotment for that operational area, which is dictated by the Department of Defence.

There are other amendments in schedule 6 to the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act which will expand the circumstances under which an eligible young person is to be taken to be wholly dependent on a member. The expansion will include an eligible young person for whom the member is liable to pay child support. These eligible young persons will have the same wholly dependent status as an eligible young person who lives with a member. It should be noted that these situations are not exhaustive, and other circumstances that meet wholly dependent status for an eligible young person will continue to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

There are further amendments to the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, which will enable chief executive of Comcare to be nominated for appointment to the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission. This measure rectifies the inadvertent disqualification in 2012 of the chief executive of Comcare from nomination for appointment to the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission.

As I have said, our commitment to looking after our veterans and recognising their unique nature of military service was something that we took to the last election and it is now being delivered by the Abbott government. My electorate of Brisbane has a proud military history. We are very proud of our veterans, and that is evidenced by the large number of applications made by community organisations to, and recommended by, the Brisbane electorate committee for the ANZAC Centenary Local Grants Program. It included some outstanding and wonderful applications from the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies; the Mates for Mates family recovery centre, which is based in Albion; Saint Andrews Uniting Church in Brisbane; St Mark's Anglican Church, Clayfield; New Farm State School; Military Brotherhood Incorporated; the Royal Brisbane Hospital Nurses Association; the Naval Association of Australia; Windsor State School, which has a proud military history, with the service of many of its former pupils dating back to World War I; the Museum of Brisbane; and the Submarines Association Australia, Queensland.

As a nation, we should never turn our backs on veterans who have defended our country. The blunt truth is that we live under an umbrella of freedom that their service has provided to us. This fact was brought home to me in very stark and real terms when I attended a veterans' forum with my parliamentary colleague, Wyatt Roy, the member for Longman, on Wednesday 21 May at The Hub Medical Centre in Morayfield. This was organised by its principal, Dr Raymond Huntley. I had the opportunity to hear firsthand about the difficulties that too many veterans have in obtaining and receiving advice—to hear their frustrations, what they have to go through and, sometimes, the trauma that this causes them.

We need to do things a lot better. Many of the veterans at that particular forum spoke about their individual circumstances and what it was like to transition into civilian life from the military. Many of them spoke about the fact that they were not informed of their entitlements and benefits. There needs to be a better way of doing that and whether to engage more DVA officers at military bases to make sure that the transition is much smoother.

I heard, with anguish, a particular incident of one veteran, who needed to receive counselling for PTSD. He found out that he was entitled to transport to the counselling service two years after he had been going to receive counselling. That would have benefited him, if he had been informed that those conditions and entitlements were there and were available for him. Of course, he was undergoing treatment at the time and that must have made it very difficult for him to drive himself to those particular appointments. Listening to veterans become traumatised about what they have experienced and then having to listen to them about navigating their way through a system that sometimes is not user friendly were very chilling moments for all of us who were there. It is not an acceptable situation. We must change the way that we look after veterans and the way that their entitlements are administered.

We talk about the ultimate sacrifice that so many ADF personnel have made throughout our country's history. We always, rightly, pay homage to them on Anzac Day. Our gratitude should not be confined to just one day of the year. We should always pay homage to them. We should look forward to ways that we can display that gratitude in how we give back to our veterans who have given so much to us. This bill is the first necessary step, but it goes some way to demonstrating that gratitude and extending to our veterans the very, very best respect that they so richly deserve. I commend the bill to the House.

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