Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2016 reminds me of a number of things. It reminds me of a Vietnam veteran I met at the Bulimba bowls club on Anzac Day this year, who told me about having lost more of his comrades in the past year to suicide. It reminds me of a current serving member of the armed forces I spoke with on the day of the commemoration of the Battle of Long Tan. He spoke to me not just about suicide but also about the ongoing effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on people he had worked with and served with, who were still overseas or who were returning from overseas. It reminds me of the peacekeepers I have spoken to in my electorate, who have told me some harrowing stories of the work that they have done in places like East Timor and the ongoing impacts on their lives. It reminds me of a very young former soldier I met. You probably remember that Ben Quilty went over to Afghanistan, commissioned by the Australian War Memorial, and produced an exhibition called After Afghanistan. I remember going to the exhibition when it was held in my electorate, at Griffith University at South Bank in Brisbane, and seeing the incredible paintings and meeting two people who had been the subjects of the paintings. One of them, as I say, was very young. He had joined when he was still a teenager and had gone over to Afghanistan. He would have been 22, I think. He had left the Defence Force. He was looking at what to do next with his life. He talked to me about the experience of serving over there and the experience of what it was like afterwards. But probably the most memorable part of that event was hearing someone older than me, a mature man, speak at the exhibition about his own work as a leader of soldiers in Afghanistan and seeing him cry in the middle of his speech, in front of all these people, and, in doing so, really talk about the impact of service on him.

This bill also reminds me of the memorial service that was held here at Parliament House in the last sitting week, conducted by the member for Fairfax and the member for Moreton and attended by the minister and the shadow minister as an acknowledgement of people who had been lost to PTSD and suicide following military service. It was a great service that was conducted just outside where we are now. One of the people present at that service was the widow of someone who had been lost and another was his daughter. I spoke to them after the service, and they were so pleased that this parliament was acknowledging the losses that have occurred as a consequence of PTSD and of suicide.

Only just this weekend, on Saturday, I held a mobile office and a young man came to see about an issue unrelated to military service. We got to talking and I asked him what he had done before what he was doing now—he is currently at TAFE getting ready to go to university and study engineering—and he said, 'I was in the Army and I had two tours in the Middle East.' I asked, 'Did you go to Afghanistan?' He said, 'I was there only really briefly,' and I asked what it was like. He said, 'While I was there I was a pallbearer.' There had been losses while he had been there. That made me think about these young Australians who go to very, very distant places and who do so not for glory, personal satisfaction or personal fame but out of a sense of duty, obligation and service. They are incredible people. It is incredible to think of voluntary enrolment in the defence forces and the willingness to go and serve.

My great-grandfather was a prisoner of war. I remember him still. My parents were young and my grandparents were young; so I have strong memories of my great-grandfather. He never spoke to me about that experience but, when my grandmother passed away a couple of years ago, one of her personal effects was something that I had never seen, and it was his diary from when he was a prisoner of war. She had kept it. I do not think anyone in my family had seen it. It is a harrowing thing to look at. He was a young man and he had two daughters when this was happening to him. My great-grandmother had taken them up to Yorkshire to keep them safe. So he was not as young as some of the other veterans.

The sacrifices that are made but also the fear of what might happen to you or the fear of the consequences and the impact of living on after your comrades have been injured, maimed or killed are things that everyone in this place should think about—and I am sure that all of us do think about. When we think about veterans, we really need to be very careful to ensure that those who are left—those who do survive, those who do grow old, those who are wearied by age—are cared for as well. That is why I think that this bill is so important.

PTSD is a serious medical condition, and that is why I am really pleased that the Gallipoli Medical Research Foundation, which is based in my electorate, is undertaking some world-first research into PTSD for veterans. The foundation has partnered with RSL Queensland for that purpose. Since 2013, the RSL has given almost $7 million to the Gallipoli Medical Research Foundation for this world-first research into PTSD. The foundation is talking to 150 Vietnam veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD and 150 who have never been diagnosed. It is working with those people to understand the science of PTSD, to look at the genetics of PTSD and to look at the physical effects. I think sometimes the physical effects are not front of mind for us when we talk about it.

Some of the initial findings from the research is showing that, if you have PTSD, you are something like three times more likely to be acting out your dreams while you are having them, you are much more likely to have restless legs and you are much more likely to have fatigue during the day. And there is a range of other physical effects that flow on from PTSD. So I wanted to take the opportunity while speaking to this bill to acknowledge that that partnership is ongoing in Queensland and to thank the Gallipoli Medical Research Foundation and RSL Queensland for the work that they are doing. They estimate that there are around 4,000 Australian veterans of Afghanistan alone who have PTSD. Of course, if you look at all of the conflicts and all of the people who have served, there would be many more. So I wanted to acknowledge them and thank them.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank those people who have served and to thank those people who are still serving. It is always a great honour as part of our role as federal members of parliament to participate in memorials and commemorations of conflicts and wars. Just a couple of weeks ago I was at a commemoration for the First World War. In my electorate there is a First World War memorial that was laid in 1916. It is one of the earliest war memorials in the country. We were commemorating the centenary of that memorial. One of the reasons it is such a great honour to be part of those commemorations is that you do get to acknowledge the work of people who have made sacrifices, people who have served, people who have not come back, people who still serve and their families. That was of course no exception, and I had the pleasure of speaking with people on that day. So, in the course of speaking to this bill, I really want to acknowledge and thank all those who make sacrifices in defending the nation. The work that they do is invaluable.

We cannot do enough to express our gratitude and, if we are sincere about that gratitude and we really mean what we say when we talk about those who have served when we go to those commemorations, that has to be backed up with genuine support for veterans. That is why I am pleased to support this bill today. It is a bill that will make adjustments. It will adjust payments of interim compensation to incapacitated current or former ADF members, which happens while the actual amount of compensation is being determined. Instead of being paid at the minimum wage while you are waiting for the determination, you will be paid above the minimum wage. It will be a compensation situation with recognition for what was earnt.

As a consequence of this bill, there will also be some changes in relation to post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder. It is estimated that around 67,000 additional current and former permanent members of the ADF will become eligible to receive this particular benefit, the NLHC, and that includes victims of abuse in the ADF as well. Finally, there is the alignment of the incapacity payments cut-off age to the increases in the age pension eligibility, which is a very important measure and one that advocates for Defence Force personnel in my electorate have been calling for for some time.

Looking after veterans is a priority for Labor. We have a great shadow minister in Amanda Rishworth. In the time that she has been the shadow minister for veterans' affairs she has done a lot of work to work with the community and to really speak with veterans about what needs to be done. She is continuing to pursue policy change that will continue to support veterans. I note that shadow assistant minister Brodtmann is also here with us today. She has been a tireless advocate for the Defence community, including for veterans and the families of Defence members. Every time ADSO visits me, I get a nice story about how great she is and what a wonderful advocate she is. It is really pleasing for me to be able to stand here and support a bill that I know she supports very strongly—as does the shadow minister—and to commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context