Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to ask the minister for veterans affairs one question. It's very personal to me and my family, not only my personal family, but my military family. I served for 20 years in the Australian regular Army, culminating in my position as a sergeant major of the Defence Force School of Signals electronic warfare school in Cabarlah. I've taken those soldiers off the bus as civilians and I've trained them to be soldiers at Kapooka, at the Royal Military College and at a number of training institutions throughout the Australian Army. So I know soldiering. I also understand the toll that soldiering has on our Defence personnel. I understand the commitment that our soldiers, our sailors and our airmen have to the defence of our nation and its interests. I salute that today on the eve of the 11th day of the 11th month.

But to bring this back: after 20 years of service, I can remember my last day in the military, where I stood on a parade ground in front of 300 soldiers that I respected. I knew them like my own family. I knew their families, I knew their aspirations, I knew their dreams. To leave that family that was the Army after 20 years service is an incredible transformation. That's what I want to cover today, Minister. It is that important issue that we have for our Defence personnel in transitioning from the big family that we have as the military, transitioning into their new life. We need to stand by them as they transition through that process to a new life. We need to give them a new purpose, a new family, a new way of life, connect them to the civilian world. We need to articulate the skills and knowledge that they have built up, that we've inculcated in them in that 20 years of service. We need to inculcate that into the civilian job. We need to articulate that into the civilian job so that they can best make that transition and find their way, find their purpose and have a new life.

Minister, I also welcome your assistance and I want to recognise that today, particularly in the great state of Tasmania after I went and saw you early in my tenure here when I was concerned about no-one listening to our veterans in Tasmania. Often government provides a fix, if you like, to try and help our veterans. Often we tell them what they want, rather than asking them what they need. So I welcome the community consultative process that you've been able to fund, Minister, in Tasmania, which is going to be conducted by the University of Tasmania, and I look forward to the recommendations that will come from that and will ultimately help our veterans transition.

I think also that our businesses will play an important part in the way our veterans transcend their move from Defence into civilian life. I would also like feedback from you about how we best integrate our businesses into employing our veterans. I want to make the statement very clearly today that employing a veteran is incredibly good for your business. The loyalty, the honesty, the mission focus, planning process, personnel management, prioritisation of tasks—if a veteran sees a problem in front of him or her, they immediately identify the fault, identify the pathway, get around the problem and continue the mission. It's that same mission focus that can be advantageous once we start moving into the civilian world. So I would like to hear more on that.

Finally, my main question is on transition and the Joint Transition Authority that the government has funded with $17.7 million to help our veterans transition from the big military life into civilians. I'd like to know how this is going to play out and exactly what this means to our veterans on the ground. Ultimately, are we going to stand by them as they make this transition? Are we going to support them into their new way of life? I think this is important. Once they make that transition successfully, I think we will see a decline in the amount of injuries and claims under the Veterans' Entitlement Act. Minister, if you wouldn't mind answering those questions, on behalf of the veteran community, I would greatly appreciate it.

See this speech in context