Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is pleasing to see that this Military Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment (Incapacity Payments) Bill 2022 does have bipartisan—in fact tripartisan, as it may be—support. We all support our veterans. I too would like to acknowledge the service of members of this place and, indeed, the other place; I see the member for Braddon is here today.

We all owe our veterans a debt of gratitude and of course we value their ongoing commitment. Too many of them continue to come home damaged—emotionally, mentally—after their service and it's up to us in civvy street to do all that we can to make sure that they transition back into having very productive and, indeed, happy lives. These are people who have sacrificed everything that they have. They're willing to put their lives on the line for their country; the least we can do is make sure that we are there for them when they come home.

This is a pretty simple bill. As the former Deputy Prime Minister said, the coalition had this in their budget. And I can't let his sledge go unremarked upon—and it's a shame, because this has consensus support. He can't have a go at us for bringing this on within the first few months of our government. We're just over 100 days into government and they were on the benches for nine years—nine years! They could have extended this pilot when they were in government but they didn't. I'm sure it wasn't because of malice or anything else, it was just sheer incompetence. They didn't get through the workload that they set for themselves; they just didn't do it! So it's no good having a go at us when we're onto this in the first few months of our term in government.

The minister is sitting here showing his commitment to this process, and this will extend the payments to make sure that people are not unduly affected by them being cut. It's vital that this legislation is progressed to support the 370 veterans who are currently experiencing a payment reduction due to the inaction of those opposite. It helps them transition, as I said, and we are committed—we are absolutely committed—as a government to delivering a comprehensive employment program for veterans, to support personnel as they make that transition.

As I said, the former government introduced this as a pilot program to support veterans. It was a good pilot; unfortunately, pilots come to an end. The former government had the chance to extend it and they didn't get around to doing it, and that left too many people unnecessarily affected. The government—as, I'm sure, the entire parliament—cares about the 370 people affected by this. We couldn't simply let it end; that would have meant an immediate reduction of up to 25 per cent if it weren't fixed. We can't leave these people hanging.

This bill will amend the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation 2004 and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 to provide for all eligible veterans covered under these two schemes. It will enable veterans undertaking an eligible course of study to access the beneficial arrangements for an additional year, to 30 June 2023, where the calculation of incapacity payments is based on 100 per cent of the veteran's pre-injury earnings. That's important: it ensures that student veterans who should have been eligible for the higher rate of payment can receive back payments to cover the period from 1 July 2022. So these payments are compensation for lost earnings incurred as a direct result of a physical or mental injury sustained while serving and incurred as a result of protecting Australians. As I said, fair too many veterans come home hurt and damaged, and we all deal with them as constituents in our electorate. I was in this place when the member for Braddon made some of his fine speeches and contributions on this matter. In the last parliament, we spoke about the ultimate sacrifice Teddy Sheean made, and the member for Braddon made a very fine speech on that.

We owe these people everything. I can't express this in words. I've not served in uniform, except for a very brief stint as a 14-year-old in Army Cadets—not the most successful career in the services! We owe them everything. They are willing to put everything on the line. Far too many of them come home damaged. We need to do everything we possibly can to ensure that they have a happy and productive life once they're back home in Australia, and this bill will help that journey.

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