Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Veterans' Entitlements Amendment Bill 2018 as part of this parliament's enduring responsibility to honour Australian veterans. I know that that sentiment is shared by, hopefully, everybody in this place as well as in the Senate. Any of us who have not been veterans will never appreciate the sacrifice or the preparedness to sacrifice that so many have been prepared to give to our great nation. I was reminded of this recently when I visited a veteran community in the Goldstein electorate, many of whom have previously been actively involved in the RSL. I visited Vasey RSL Care in Brighton East with Senator Jim Molan—of course a veteran himself. These champions included people like Bob Larkin, Peter Lanigan, Judy Smith, Dennis Pope, Ray Dunstan, Jordie Burgess, Jeff Walters and Roger Hyde. They have helped guide returning servicemen and women with distinction, and they have my gratitude and of course the gratitude of the Goldstein community. We will never forget your preparedness to sacrifice and to continue to honour veterans and their families.

That is, of course, what we seek to do and to enliven as part of this piece of legislation. The government has introduced a host of measures to improve the lives of veterans and their families and support them through difficult periods. This support is included in the 2018-19 budget, which allocates additional funding to dental and allied health services, improving mental health, assisting veterans in finding work and increasing access to Department of Veterans' Affairs services, as well as assisting veterans with the challenges of depression and associated mental health consequences and, tragically, the example of suicide. In 2017 there were 84 veteran suicides. I'm sure everybody here recognises that that number is simply not good enough.

So we have acted. We've delivered an additional $31 million in funding to support veterans' mental health on top of last year's increase of $58.1 million. We've provided an additional $8.3 million for improving employment opportunities for veterans, both in improving community engagement with veterans' employment and assisting veterans adjusting to civilian work. But the value and the contribution of what we are doing will never properly be measured in dollars and cents. It will only ever be fully realised in the lives lived and the circumstances avoided, to make sure that veterans can make a continuing contribution to their country and are able to stand on their own two feet, be fully accepted and embraced within our community and live full lives.

The Veterans' Entitlements Amendment Bill 2018 continues these important efforts. We are seeking to ease the bureaucratic burden and administration for bereaved families of veterans by simplifying the way the Department of Veterans' Affairs dispenses final payments. Importantly, this amendment does not change the amount paid to the veteran's family. We respect the importance of the veterans' service pension, income support supplement and social security pension. The bill reduces the administrative processes to alleviate the period of grieving for families of veterans. I would hope that no nobody would want a situation where you have a bereaved family and the biggest hurdle they face after their grief is red tape. After a veteran's passing, the Department of Veterans' Affairs entitles the surviving family to a bereavement payment, and we recognise that this payment plays an important role in supporting a grieving family in their tragedy.

However, when a veteran passes there is often a delay between their date of death and when the Department of Veterans' Affairs is notified. This means the final payment of pension is often higher than what the veteran's surviving partner is entitled to. This occurs because when the payment is issued to veterans while they are still alive, it is assumed they will be eligible for the entire period. Therefore, it is frequently the case that families owe the difference between the value of the veteran's pension that was paid and the value entitled to the veteran after considering their passing.

The current system is inefficient and unnecessarily burdensome on the families of those who have already lost a loved one. It requires they undergo a formal debt recovery method undertaken by the department. This bill seeks to simplify this process by deducting the overpaid value paid to the veteran and surviving partner over the bereavement payment entitled to the families, cutting out the unnecessary debt recovery stage.

There are 215,000 veterans receiving support from the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and our measures aim to improve their lives, every single one of them. They're Aussies, just like us, and they deserve our support. So, with the measures in this bill, particularly in times of tragedy or in times where people are grieving, veterans' families will know that everything that this government can do to minimise their pain and the burden of bureaucracy is being taken off them so they can have their thoughts and prayers where they're properly deserved.

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