David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (2015 Budget Measures) Bill 2015. Labor supports this bill because it represents a modest improvement to entitlements of and services to veterans.

The Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (2015 Budget Measures) Bill 2015 amends the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986, the VEA; the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004, known as the MRCA; and the Defence Act 1903, and it does so in the following respects. Firstly, it expands the range of services available under the Veterans' Vocational Rehabilitation Scheme, the VVRS; and makes changes to the way certain periods of work undertaken as part of the VVRS, income earned from that work and periods of unemployment affect the rate of disability pension and/or service pension paid to participants. Secondly, it creates a single path of review for original determinations made under the MRCA. Thirdly, it allows the Minister for Veterans' Affairs to amend regulations 31 of the Defence Force Regulations 1952 so as to provide for the repatriation of the remains of service dependants buried in the Terendak Military Cemetery in Malaysia. Schedule 1 amends the VEA to expand the range of services available under the Veterans' Vocational Rehabilitation Scheme. These changes were announced in the 2015-16 budget.

The VVRS has been administered by the Department of Veterans' Affairs since the mid-1990s and was introduced to meet concerns that younger veterans were being accepted as totally and permanently incapacitated for work, without being provided with opportunities for vocational rehabilitation. It is a voluntary scheme aimed at assisting eligible veterans to find or maintain paid employment. The scheme is intended for former members of the Australian Defence Force with qualifying service or those about to leave the ADF. The ADF has its own rehabilitation scheme for serving members. The VVRS is separate to other rehabilitation services provided under schemes such as the MRCA and the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988, and veterans cannot undertake vocational rehabilitation under the VVRS concurrently with any other vocational rehabilitation program.

The VVRS services include    assistance in assessing and updating a veteran's skills, job-seeking techniques and interview skills; assistance to increase hours of work in an existing position, or, where the veteran is having difficulty coping, to manage the situation or look at alternative options; assistance to find suitable employment before the transition from the ADF to civilian workforce and life; and a skill development, or assistance in gaining recognition for skills, to assist in finding employment.

While the VVRS is not restricted to those with disability, as a rehabilitation service it is targeted at those with impairments that can affect an individual's ability to find and/or maintain employment. As such, many VVRS participants may also be in receipt of payments from DVA in respect of their impairment, particularly the veterans' disability pension and the Invalidity Service Pension.

There are two key changes proposed by schedule 1. The first is to allow intermediate rate disability pension recipients participating in the VVRS to have paid employment of up to 20 hours a week disregarded for the purposes of calculating any disability pension or rate reduction. This aligns the disregarded work income with the work test that applies to intermediate rate pensioners. Currently, intermediate rate disability pensioners have any income from paid employment over eight hours a week used in the calculation of their rate reduction—the same as special rate disability pensioners. This amendment will mean that an intermediate rate pensioner participating in the VVRS cannot receive a lower rate of disability pension than an intermediate rate pensioner who has not participated in the VVRS. It provides a greater financial incentive for intermediate rate pensioners to participate in the VVRS and to find paid employment as a greater number of hours can now be worked, and more income earned, before the veteran's pension rate is reduced.

The second key change is to set the maximum reduction for a special rate disability pensioner who is participating in the VVRS and in paid work of more than eight hours but less than 20 hours a week to the intermediate rate rather than 100 per cent of the general rate. Special rate disability pensioners participating in the VVRS with less than 20 hours of paid work a week will receive a pension rate calculated under the current method or the intermediate rate, whichever is the higher. Again, this is aimed at ensuring that a special rate pensioner participating in the VVRS and undertaking less than 20 hours of work a week will not receive a lower rate of pension than an intermediate rate pensioner who is not participating in the scheme. Both of these key changes are beneficial to intermediate and special rate pensioners participating in the VVRS and will provide an added financial incentive for veterans to engage with the scheme and the workforce.

The other amendments proposed by the schedule will include specific references in the VEA to medical management and psychosocial services which will now be made available through the VVRS from 20 March 2016. It will ensure that periods of unemployment of six months or more will be disregarded in determining different periods of employment used in calculating the amount of income assessed under the invalidity service pension income test for participants in the VVRS. This latter amendment refers to the two-year initial period of employment in which only 50 per cent of income is assessed under the income test, and the following five-year period in which the percentage of assessed income gradually increases. This will ensure that participants in the VVRS will not have prolonged absences from the workforce treated as part of their employment period.

Schedule 2 will create a single review pathway for original determinations made under the MRCA, removing the option for internal reconsideration by the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission, and allowing only for review by the Veterans' Review Board. The MRCA provides compensation and other benefits for current and former members of the Australian Defence Force who suffer a service injury or disease and for the dependents of some deceased members of the ADF. This allows claimants to seek a review of certain original determinations made under the act. Original determinations, defined at section 345 of the MRCA, are determinations made by the MRCC or the Chief of the Defence Force, usually in relation to eligibility for compensation or the level of compensation payable to a claimant.

Currently, there are two pathways open to a claimant for the review of an original determination: an internal reconsideration by another delegate of the MRCC or a review by the VRB. Claimants who are dissatisfied with the reconsideration by the MRCC or the review by the VRB can then apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a further review. If a claimant chooses to seek reconsideration by the MRCC they are not able to then seek a review by the VRB.

The two pathways provide different review processes. The review of military compensation arrangements suggested that the VRB path can be seen as a lengthy and daunting process but that the MRCC process does not offer legal aid at the AAT. The AAT can award costs to successful claimants who have chosen the MRCC reconsideration pathway but not to claimants who pursued the VRB pathway. Both pathways have different time limits for the lodgement of applications and for subsequent actions. The review found that there was broad support to simplify the appeals process by removing the MRCC pathway and directing all appeals to the VRB, as proposed by schedule 2.

Schedule 3 amends the Defence Act 1903 to expand the regulation making power under paragraph 124(1) to authorise, under regulation 31 of the Defence Force Regulations 1952, the repatriation of the remains of eight service dependants buried at Terendak Military Cemetery in Malaysia, if requested to do so by their families. The Terendak Military Cemetery is located within a Malaysian military base, the Terendak Camp, on the coast of the Malacca Straits, approximately 21 kilometres north of Malacca. Terendak Camp was originally built by the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand during the period 1957 to 1959, to house the 28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade.

Of the 521 Australians killed in the Vietnam War, 496 were repatriated to Australia with full honours. There are 24 Australian servicemen buried at Terendak, Malaysia and another buried at Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore. These 25 soldiers are the only remaining Australian servicemen killed during the Vietnam War who have not been returned to their families for burial. During the early days of the Vietnam War, families would have their son's body sent home only if their next of kin or benefactor were willing and able to pay 500 pounds for their repatriation to Australia. If families were unable to afford this, the soldier would be buried in Terendak, Malaysia. In January 1966, the Australian government resolved that all soldiers killed in Vietnam were to be returned to Australia at the expense of the Commonwealth.

After a public campaign by the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia—operation 'Bring Them Home'—and other ex-service organisations, and long-running negotiations between the Australian and Malaysian governments, the Australian government announced in May 2015 that it would repatriate the remains of the 25 Australian Vietnam veterans buried overseas, where that was the wish of the deceased's family. As the Terendak Military Cemetery is difficult to access, being within a large Malaysian military base and requiring special permissions to visit, the Australian government also extended the offer to repatriate remains to the families of the other three Australian servicemen and eight service dependants who are buried there.

Labor has continued to support this offer to repatriate the remains of deceased Vietnam veterans buried in the Terendak Military Cemetery in Malaysia and Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore if requested to do so by the families. As we move into the 51st year since the first Australian serviceman was killed in the Vietnam War, we must remember that we owe these men and, indeed, their families an enduring obligation and respect for the sacrifice they made. As I said in my introduction, Labor will support this bill because it does represent a modest improvement to entitlements of, and services to, veterans. I commend this bill to the House.

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