Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Military Rehabilitation and Compensation and other Legislation Amendment (Incapacity Payments) Bill 2022 is part and parcel of an amendment of the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 and the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation 1988. Basically what is about is that, in the past we had a step down that, after 45 weeks, what you were paid in your education process of getting back onto civvy street was reduced to 75 per cent. This is pertinent to around 600 veterans that we currently have. We currently have in Australia about 343,000 people who have done service and are back on civvy street. This is part and parcel of what the coalition was bringing forward. It was in our budget. We allocated $7.1 million to it in the budget, and it is good to see that there is now consensus and the government has brought it forward. It's a shame that the government didn't sit earlier and we could have had these payments start earlier. I acknowledge that people will get back pay. The parliament is going to sit seven weeks, which is patently absurd, but it's good that this has come forward.

It is incredibly important that someone who has served our nation manages to get back into society in a cogent way and a way that fulfils their requirements of a long life after they have left the service. I reflect also in the rehabilitation section on the service of the member for Herbert, who I'm sure will have a lot more to say about this in a more formidable way than I can espouse. I also acknowledge the other servicemen. The member for Braddon is here. No doubt he will have something to say about it as well.

My own father was repatriated after his time in the services. He was smashed up. He always reminded me about this. An anti-aircraft gun was dropped on him by the American troops when they were loading as part of the process of embarkation to the Italian peninsula, which he never got to, thank God. That's why I think I'm here. He was a lance bombardier at that stage. After warning people—'If you stand underneath that crane and something breaks, someone is going to get badly hurt'—something broke, and the person who was badly hurt and put into a wheelchair for a period of time was my father.

His path back into society was to study very hard. He got accepted into Sydney university, where he did vet science. That's pretty good for a person who left school when they were 14. He reminded me that he had to teach himself chemistry and physics. As he started teaching himself chemistry and they started talking about ions he actually thought they meant irons for ironing clothes.

He and others at that time were at a place called Neringah Hostel at Wahroonga. The process for those ex-servicemen, whether they had been in the Air Force or the Army, was to go to university. That's where they stayed. They were being repatriated. They went back to university. There were not just the physical issues—the hurt. He reminded me of the ex fighter pilots who had been under incredible stress in their service and who had been mentally affected as well.

This is noncontroversial. We look forward to assisting the government to get this through as quickly as possible. I've had discussions with the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel. I appreciate and commend him for reaching out. We will make sure that we work together so that we look after people who have served our nation. There are circumstances before our nation right now that mean that, unfortunately, once more we have to build up our services, by reason of the quite obvious threat we are all aware of and we can see on the television most nights. To do that we have to show people not only that we look after them in the services but, very importantly, that we look after them after their service and we bring them back into society in a way that allows them to be in sight of those who have not served.

Of course, there are those who have paid the supreme sacrifice and those who have been psychologically tormented by it. There are other issues pertinent to that as well—by reason of them being away, families have broken up. There is immense stress that goes onto the partners when someone is away. Naturally enough, as people are away for long periods of time, people's lives can in some instances go in different directions. This causes immense fervour to people on both sides of that marriage or partnership.

The other thing that is very pertinent of course is that when people go away other people get on with their lives and become successful in business or become successful in their career. There is a sense of umbrage when people come back and say, 'I served my nation and you became very wealthy.' This is not really fair because by serving their nation they gave that person the right and the protection to take the career path that they took. One of the ways to keep this with in sight is to make sure that people have the capacity to be educated. This bill, with the amendment pertinent to the two sections of the acts which I mentioned—the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1998—will also mean that it stays within the international covenant on economic and social issues, I think it is, which also speaks about this issue. It will make sure that we are complying with that.

So I won't delay the House. I think the people who are waiting for this payment have been delayed long enough. I thank everybody for their attention.

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