Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment (Defence Force) Bill 2016. As it's in continuation, and as a reminder to honourable members, this bill goes to the consolidation under the responsibility of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs of all current veterans, which makes a lot of sense.

Veterans should not be confronted with a bureaucratic maze when attempting to seek assistance. It's hard enough when you're suffering from anxiety, depression or some ailment stemming from your service to our country without unnecessary and confusing red tape becoming an obstacle to getting the support that you need. We should attempt in every possible way to minimise the amount of red tape and obstructions that prevent veterans from seeking the help that they need.

Pensions, compensation, rehabilitation, treatment and other benefits for veterans, members of the Defence Force and their families are currently provided under three separate acts: the VEA; the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, the MRCA; and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, the SRCA. This bill will remove the applicability of the SRCA and create the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment (Defence Force) Bill 2016, the DRCA, which will only cover Defence Force members and their families. The implementation of this proposed DRCA will provide for a complete separation of the legislative framework for Defence related claims from the Comcare scheme under the SRCA and will provide the Minister for Veterans' Affairs with the responsibility for all three separate compensation acts which cover veterans and Defence.

Veterans, former ADF personnel and their families have unique needs that would be better served by a dedicated minister. The last time that I spoke, in the last sittings, we all encouraged the minister to rededicate himself to the service of our people through the better running of the Department of Veterans' Affairs and better consultation with the ex-services community. Rather than having the different acts under different ministers, all pieces of legislation will now be under the one minister, as I mentioned. This makes a lot of sense.

However, I do note that this bill attracted some scrutiny from the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, and want to briefly comment on some of that scrutiny. That committee noted that there was a perception that there is an adversarial relationship between DVA and veterans groups and veterans advocates. I know this myself from speaking with colleagues about their experiences with the department, but I must stress: there are excellent people working in the department; it's just that the processes in the department—and perhaps some of the culture in the department—need review.

A mate that I served with who has gone through this process has just received confirmation of the claim process after three years. During those three years, he was going through an incredibly difficult time personally in terms of not only his mental health but his identity, coming out of his career in Defence and losing a bit of purpose. At the same time, he was coming up against the obstacles in this claim process. I've held forums in my electorate where I have had feedback from veterans and ex-service people along the same lines. So it is concerning, but it is also consistent with feedback we've got from around the country.

I hope that DVA can pursue a more mutually accommodating relationship with its stakeholders. We all hope for that. Another main theme that the committee noted was that there was a need for improvements in those DVA consultation processes. While we on this side of the House acknowledge that DVA itself has undertaken to review its own processes, we encourage it to complete this as soon as possible to ensure that effective consultation with all relevant stakeholders is able to occur. As everyone knows, generally speaking mutually beneficial outcomes occur for not only DVA clients and the future clients but also the stakeholders involved when all sides are consulted. This simply makes sense. It's the best way to get great outcomes for those who have served our country.

We have so many organisations across the country. I think a review was recently done that said that there were around 3,000 ex-service type organisations in Australia. So the process of consultation with those groups is more important than ever. When I reflect on the situation for ex-service people and veterans in my own electorate, we have thousands of ex-service people, whether they served overseas on active service or not, living in our community. Some of those members were injured or are suffering from events that may have occurred when they were in uniform, whether it be in Australia during training or whether it be when overseas. Those service people, those fine Australians, need more support. It's proper that the veterans' affairs minister is now responsible for all of them and that's what this bill is all about.

Currently, in my electorate we're recruiting for a level 3 advocate. For those who are not aware, an advocate is someone who works with the ex-Defence member who has served us. The advocate helps them through the process of getting some assistance in a claims process through Veterans' Affairs, but can also help in many other ways in an individual's transition from the military to civilian life, as it's called when you're inside the military. That role is yet to be filled. Without turning my contribution into an ad, I want to put it out there nationally that Darwin is looking for a level 3 advocate to work with our service men and women who are seeking assistance to make claims through the department.

Most jurisdictions, most capital cities, all over Australia have these level 3 advocates. At level 3 they have the desired amount of experience with the acts, including the one that we're discussing today, to help the ex-service member through the claims process to get the desired outcomes. Anyone interested in applying for that role can look at seek.com.au. That advocate position will also coordinate the services of the level 1 and level 2 advocates as well.

These are volunteers working in our community. All members of this place will know how vital those volunteers are, but they need to be coordinated. Case management is important, because you can't let anyone fall through the cracks. With successive advocates that we've had, our experience has been that you've got a volunteer person, who may already be working through their own issues to do with their own service, and then, on top of that, they take on this huge weight of responsibility to help Australians facing anxieties and difficult challenges—be they physical ill health or mental ill health—through that process whilst also dealing with their own stuff and doing the best they can to case manage that claims process through the DVA. As I said, the staff of the DVA do the best possible job they can, but we really need that level 3 advocate in the Top End.

There are a number of organisations in my electorate, and I want to acknowledge a couple of them for their fine work. The Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia NT branch will soon do something that hasn't happened anywhere in Australia, and that is change their name. There'll be a vote to change their name to Veterans Australia NT. They are considering dropping 'Vietnam' out of their name because they want to make sure that young veterans feel like they can come to Veterans Australia NT and have a home where they belong. I think the Vietnam veterans are right in thinking that having their name as the Vietnams Veterans Association of Australia NT meant that younger veterans who may have served in places like Rwanda, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Timor-Leste maybe didn't think that that group was for them. I can assure those ex-service people in the Territory that, even though the name change won't be voted on for a couple of weeks, they are welcome in that organisation, and I know the executive committee want to reach out in every possible way. I want to acknowledge Bob Shewring, who is the president of that organisation, for his leadership on the issue and also the vice-president, Ray Palmer, who lost his son fighting for our country in Afghanistan.

We have RSLs in Palmerston and Darwin. Those RSLs are working to coordinate more with the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia in order to make sure that ex-serving people in our electorate don't fall through the gaps, and I congratulate them for the work that they're doing.

Next week we hope to have one of our Korean veterans come down to Canberra for the opening of the Peacekeeping Memorial on Anzac Parade. We are hoping that we can get Jack Myatt, who served with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, peacekeeping along the DMZ on the border between North Korea and South Korea in that transition period post hostilities, to come down and be awarded by the South Korean government the peace medal that they have struck to acknowledge those members of the forces from Commonwealth and other countries who were committed to securing the demilitarised zone from any further aggression at the cessation of hostilities in the 1950s when there were continuing border infringements. It's great to talk with Jack about that time, and it's very apt not only that he will be acknowledged by the South Korean government but also that he will there for the unveiling of the Peacekeeping Memorial on Anzac Parade.

So many Australian men and women have served our country in peacekeeping roles—including, in my own family, two of my brothers. In peacekeeping roles, as in more full armed conflict, as we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan over the years, our members can see and be a part of very difficult and challenging circumstances. They have very difficult experiences, see people killed and see things that are very confronting. We want to make sure that all of those people—like everyone who represents our country overseas—who are affected by their service have the best level of service possible through the department, and it's great all that legislation will be under the Minister for Veterans' Affairs from here on in.

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