Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forrest for her deeply personal reflections upon this legislation. It's very important that we note the personal sacrifice and how it affects families when we consider legislation like this.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this legislation. This bill, the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Veteran-centric Reforms No. 2) Bill 2018, will be fully supported by Labor. We have a continuing responsibility to those who have served and to their families, as we've heard. That responsibility arises from the fact that our Australian Defence Force personnel are required, as part of serving our country, to take risks, make sacrifices and commit their lives—indeed, their very wellbeing—to the Defence Force. Those service men and women put their lives on hold to undertake service for this country.

The measures contained in this legislation are further acknowledgement of our obligations to our ex-service personnel. These measures—in particular, the measures which are aimed at providing increased support for those for whom service has had a greater impact upon them—seek to further ensure that we recognise our continuing obligation. And I emphasise the words 'continuing obligation'.

The bill comprises six schedules. It puts into legislative effect announcements made in both the 2017-18 and 2018-19 budgets. Schedule 1 addresses former ADF members who are currently receiving incapacity payments at 100 per cent of their normal weekly earnings. The payments that they receive are compensation paid for a loss of normal earnings suffered as a result of a service-related physical and/or mental health condition. Currently, incapacity payments step down to 75 per cent or higher, depending upon weekly hours worked, of normal earnings after a period of 45 weeks. This is a standard workers compensation provision. This amendment will benefit those who are participating in a DVA-funded rehabilitation plan who are undertaking either vocational or tertiary study, thereby providing much-needed financial security to the veteran and their family while they are studying. It will ensure that they may focus on their study and not be concerned about financial matters. This is a good measure. It encourages rehabilitation and re-engagement with study. The intention is that a person who has commenced a rehabilitation plan or their full-time studies as part of an approved rehabilitation plan before the amendments commenced will be entitled to have their incapacity payments paid at 100 per cent from the commencement of these amendments until 1 July 2022.

There'll also be an instrument-making power which will enable the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission to determine the circumstances in which a person is undertaking full-time study. This is designed to ensure that breaks such as semester breaks don't result in a step-down of payments, and that other analogous issues are addressed. For example, this will include when a person is undertaking the equivalent of full-time study, which will be 75 per cent of a full-time study load, or, as I've said previously, when they are on a semester break. The measure will assist, as we've heard previously, approximately 150 people per year and will cost $10.8 million over the forward estimates.

Further education and training, of course, are both important, particularly where the individual has had no choice but to leave the Australian Defence Force and thereby needs to focus on civilian life, which is, of course, in itself a very significant life change. Labor believes that providing this support will ensure greater outcomes for veterans and their families and will assist in moving veterans into meaningful employment post service.

I've spoken in this place previously about programs, including locally developed programs within my electorate of Bass which focus upon the reintegration of veterans in our communities. Veterans' unemployment is and remains a serious issue, an issue which must be addressed through investment in people. Best estimates cite that 30.2 per cent of those who leave the ADF fail to find employment. This means that, of the approximately 5,500 veterans who leave each year, roughly 1,600 individuals failed to move into employment. Of those who do find employment, 19 per cent are underemployed or in jobs which are beneath their capabilities. On average, those who are employed experience an average 30 per cent drop in income from their ADF wages. This means that education is an imperative, not just an aspiration.

It is for this reason that Labor is committed to a $121 million Veterans' Employment Program which seeks to ensure that veterans are best prepared to move into meaningful employment and employers are able to gain the many advantages of hiring these highly skilled and highly dedicated individuals. Education and reskilling is important for all who leave the ADF but, for those who've left due to injury and/or illness, reintegration and reorientation of their lives is even more important. This amendment will ensure that those who are on an incapacity payment can focus on their future without worrying about finances.

Schedule 2 creates a suicide prevention pilot. I've spoken previously in this place on a number of occasions about the high rate of suicide among our ex-ADF personnel. More must be done to address the feelings of dislocation, disorientation and loss which result from losing connection with the ADF. It is shameful that so many of our ex-ADF servicemen and servicewomen are in a position where suicide is, to them, the only viable option. We quite appropriately recognise the service of those who have been killed overseas. We mourn their loss and commemorate them and their sacrifice. But there are many more who have been lost to suicide, and we are only now just seeking to pick up our response to this issue.

The suicide prevention pilot will private greater support for those who've been hospitalised after attempted suicide or suicidal ideation or those who've been assessed at increased risk of suicide because of their mental health or other factors. The first of these trials as part of the Department of Health initiative is based in Townsville working with the Northern Queensland Primary Health Network. The legislative basis for the second trial passed the parliament earlier this year and created a coordinated veterans' care model which is aimed at mental health support for veterans in rural and regional areas. The third trial again uses the coordinated approach and places the GP at the hub, working with veterans and facilities.

In my electorate of Bass, the ADF welfare team run by the Launceston RSL is an example of what can be done at a practical level in providing non-clinical support for veterans at risk. Nevertheless, clinical responses are essential to ensure that people remain safe and well. The pilot will provide a coordinated support to ensure veterans are accessing treatment and social support to reduce the risk of suicide and enhance the quality of life for participants. The trial will provide intensive and assertive management services to support a veteran after they have been discharged from hospital, including support to access other relevant government and non-governmental treatment and services, aiming to reduce the risk and improve outcomes for those involved. The National Mental Health Commission recommended step-down services which take into account factors that may lead to suicide, such as primary health, financial stress, housing and employment. Labor supports the trial. Labor is pleased to see the recommendations of the Senate inquiry being progressively implemented. I urge government to maintain the momentum to address this real and present issue.

Schedule 3 provides for compensation for a member's death. The amendments proposed would extend the time in which wholly dependent partners have to make a decision about whether to receive their compensation as a weekly payment or for their compensation to be wholly or partly converted into a lump sum payment from six months to two years. Currently, partners have six months to decide whether they would like to receive their compensation as a weekly payment or convert the whole or part of the payment into a lump sum. Where the commissioner is satisfied that there are special circumstances to justify an extension of time in which to make a choice, a longer period than six months may be granted. However, it does require them to write to the commission to request that.

These changes will ensure that partners in a very difficult period—some would say the most difficult period—have sufficient time to make a decision about whether to receive their compensation as a weekly payment or to convert it. Again, this is a case of this parliament recognising that more needs to be done to focus upon veterans and, of course, their families, rather than insisting upon bureaucratic processes. There is more that can and should be done to improve the processes that our veterans and their families deal with in either compensation or pension claims. This is a case of the issue being raised at the department's legislation workshop, but it has also arisen in other consultations with the ex-service community.

Schedule 4, as we have heard previously, amends the Veterans' Entitlements Act in order to extend the eligibility of the Long Tan Bursary scheme to grandchildren of Vietnam veterans. This bursary offers 37 scholarships of up to $12,000 over three years to children of Vietnam veterans to assist with post-secondary school education and training. Whilst criteria for these applications will not change, this amendment will enable more individuals to apply for support to help students continuing their study. Priority will still be given to supporting those children of Vietnam veterans. Labor supports the measure, which ensures that more young people are able to access appropriate supports.

Schedule 5 creates a deeming provision with respect to the service of certain submariners. This ensures that a submariner who has served on a submarine on a special submarine operation between 1 January 1978 to 31 December 1992 is deemed to have operational service. This simplifies the support available to those individuals who have served during this period who may have a claim with the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Labor supports the measure which recognises the service that these individuals have undertaken.

The final schedule simplifies the procedure for veterans to apply for compensation under the MRCA during a needs assessment. This will enable a claim for compensation to be made during a needs assessment, notwithstanding that it is undertaken verbally over the telephone. Veterans will still be entitled to make a claim in writing should they wish to do so. Labor is very supportive of measures which make the claim process easier for veterans, as long as no-one is being disadvantaged. There have been some concerns expressed about information provided by an applicant during a needs assessment subsequently being used to determine compensation claims. There is concern within the veteran community that information provided during what is now going to be an informal process might be used to decline the severity of claims further down the track. Labor has raised this issue based upon feedback from the veteran community and have requested that the government will ensure it was clear to those applying what their answers would be utilised for.

Subsequently, the government has advised that needs assessments are not to be used by the Department of Veterans' Affairs to determine compensation but instead are to be used to identify forms of support and assistance the veteran might be eligible for. That is for all who would benefit from this provision. Pleasingly, the government, to its credit, has taken this feedback onboard and will be providing further clarification to veterans applying online. This assessment will not be used to calculate compensation rates. These assurances provided by the government enabled Labor to support this measure which assists in making the complicated claims process easier for veterans and their families.

In closing, I will just reaffirm that there is very much a consensus in this place, across the parliament, as to how we should be looking after our veteran community. It is, as I have said previously, to the credit of the government that it's able to listen to concerns that are raised by Labor and its shadow minister where those concerns appear to interact with the effectiveness of the proposed amendments.

As I said earlier, the issue of veterans' suicide is a real and present concern, so it's very pleasing to see the third suicide prevention trial rolling out. It is vitally important that we not just stand still but that we continue moving to implement the recommendations of the Senate committee that's investigated veteran suicide in particular. We owe an ongoing obligation to the people who have served on behalf of the Australian Defence Force. That obligation is not discharged by people standing in this place and simply offering reassurances. We will be tested by what we actually do and by what we actually provide on the ground. With that, I'll close my contribution.

See this speech in context