Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

But I will say that, working together, we were able to get some outcomes.

There's one example that really strikes me, and it pains me very much to think about how close this came to happening. I was doing an Anzac Day service with a young fellow named Jeb Summers, who runs an organisation called Save Our Services. It's about dealing with people with PTSD and dealing with injury. Jeb won't mind me saying that he's a Middle East veteran. He came up to me and said: 'I'm so disappointed. I'm going to hand my medals back.' People who know me know that I hold Anzac Day and Remembrance Day to be the most important days on our calendar, so to have that happen really got to me. I did not want to take his hard-earned medals back. I begged him not to do it, and he didn't, but I had to make the commitment that I would continue to fight, with him and for him and for everyone else, as hard as I could for as long as I had the honour and privilege of standing here. And that's what I'll continue to do. I continue to work with and support veterans through associations of the likes of MC Labour, a labour-hire company that's running programs for veterans in Victoria to help get them into construction. A lot of veterans have had experience with running machinery in theatres of war and in disasters.

Of course we know that, whenever there's a disaster—we felt that in Black Saturday in 2009—there is a level of angst amongst communities that have lost everything. We were meeting with people who'd had the same clothes on their backs for four days because they couldn't get in and couldn't get out because of the disaster that was unfolding. But no sooner had the Army arrived with the then CDF, Angus Houston, coming in, you could see the level of angst physically drop. People took a sigh of relief. 'You're here to help.'

That is the way we respect our serving ADF personnel. We respect the work that they do and what they bring with them. When they have finished their time in the service, the difficulty is then how they transition into life, and it's not that easy. I heard one of the previous members talk about their short time in cadets. I did six years in cadets and I swore I would never, ever join the ADF, because I was sick of polishing boots, getting Brasso out and using that starch to make sure my shirts were all clean and tidy, but it did give me some very valuable things that I carry with me today, including the key to our ADF: integrity, how you value that and how you hold that so dear and so close to your heart. That's why it's important that we make sure that, when veterans leave the ADF, we do look after them.

Physical injuries we see. Mental injuries and mental scars we can't. Some physical injuries can be repaired, but mental scars often never can. I know you, Deputy Speaker Buchholz, and many members in this place on all sides will meet with veterans who do have mental scars that don't go away. I know that we all stand together to support them and help them. It's so important that we do that, because we ask them to do something most people wouldn't want to do. I think there have been many occasions where we hear about theatres of war that happen because, as the saying goes, it's old men that make decisions about young men's lives—young men and women these days, more and more. So it's important that we do that.

This is why I do praise the minister for bringing in and doing this. It's just one of those steps in the pathway to addressing what we know is a problem and putting it together. That's something that I see in Victoria, as I said, with MC Labour and with Rob Curry and the likes out there getting veterans back into employment. It's work that is being supported with the Victorian government through the minister, Shaun Leane. What scares me is that a change of government means and end of this program. That's something I don't want to see, because I think we need to ensure that we continue to do this and support the men and women who we put our faith and trust in.

The extra financial support is vital for eligible veterans as they transition to a rehabilitation program focused on gaining sustainable employment in the civilian workforce. I think that's the key. It's not about tokenism; it's about getting people something for them to do in the future. There is a wide variety of things that our ex-ADF personnel do. Most contribute a lot to society. Some end up in here; that's a different story!

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