Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I rise in support of this bill, which continues the important initiative that we started in the coalition in support of veterans. As has already been outlined, this bill ensures eligible veterans, who are undertaking approved full-time study as part of their return to work rehabilitation program, continue to receive 100 per cent of their pre-injury earnings instead of that payment dropping to 75 per cent after 45 weeks of study. There is nothing more important when transitioning out of the military than meaningful engagement or meaningful employment. This bill makes sure both those things can be easily achieved for those who unfortunately find themselves in a position where they have to leave the ADF because of injury.

I took some time to reflect on my journey, which is similar to a lot of my friends. I found myself in the Middle East in Afghanistan in 2009, as a 21-year-old, blown up by an IED that was detonated within one metre of me. I went into this really turbulent time. I felt like I'd failed my friends. I felt like a coward. I felt the moral injury of all my tribe still being overseas, whilst I was at home. I had injuries that were non-visible. You can't see a lot of my injuries, but I have a traumatic brain injury, I'm deaf in my right ear and I was subsequently diagnosed with a mental illness.

I remember sitting at home and being told I didn't have to go to work and parade anymore in the battalion, which in hindsight was probably the worst thing that could have happened to me because my accountability, my desire to get up to do something that I loved, my meaning, my engagement and my employment wasn't there. So at 21, I got these injuries, I was upset that I wasn't overseas with my tribe and angry that I was injured. I didn't have friends to lean on and to talk to. My best friend, who was my best friend at the time and now my wife, gave me a kick in the backside, but I felt like she didn't understand what I was going through because she hadn't served. Then I had my hierarchy saying, 'You must go to an appointment,' but I just didn't go.

This was at a time when our Defence Force didn't have complex injuries, didn't have people coming back unwell and didn't really know what to do. So I lost my meaning, and this spiral went on for a long time. It went on for years and years. But at the start, they would throw ideas at me, saying things like, 'Do you want to be a security guard when you leave?' 'I don't want to be a security guard.' 'Do you want to go back to concreting?' 'No, I don't want to go back to concreting.' I got into the Defence Force because I wanted to have a purpose, something to get up for, to love and do. I had to put myself through night school to get into the Defence Force, so I didn't have an education anyway.

I sat there in this big bowl of self-pity until my wife, or girlfriend at that time, and some of my friends when they started to get back gave me a big kick in the backside and said, 'Is this who you want to be? Do you want to be the person who just blames yourself and everyone else?' But I wasn't blaming people; I was just blaming how I was feeling and what I was going through, saying, 'I can't hear in my right ear. I have a brain injury and a mental illness.' I had a mental illness. And I was like, 'I don't want to do that. I want to be better. And I want to do something.' Looking back now, I could have easily been a statistic; I easily could have been on a wall somewhere. As someone who had had suicidal ideation, I could have gone down that path.

Education: I—who'd gone from a troubled kid to a ratbag barracks soldier to someone that causes trouble—found some solace in education. This bill wasn't around then, but education kind of opened my mind to what else could be there. So I decided: 'You know what? I'm going to do a degree in psychology.' Well, that didn't last very long! I was way out of my depth. Then I said: 'I want to do a bachelor's in something else,' and that didn't last long. And then a diploma fell over. Then I did a certificate IV in training assessment, and I was like: 'You know what? I can do this now.' That cert IV then turned into a diploma, and after that diploma then I got another one. I found that education gave me meaning—a reason to get up in the morning. It gave meaning to a life that had a black hole in it. It gave me something that I wanted to get up and do.

In the big scheme of things, our veterans go through a very complex journey through their military career. Not all veterans are broken, but even veterans who are can still punch through and find some meaning in their life. Nor should anyone think that veterans who have served or who are transitioning, wounded, injured or ill, from their service, are all going to study; let's not think that. But let's think that all veterans, and everyone, should have meaningful engagement and/or meaningful employment—something to get up in the morning for, something to love, something that you want to do, something that gives you that drive—because the absence of that creates negative wellbeing in our society. And, to be very frank, it means I'm probably going to attend another funeral. So everyone needs to have some meaning. For that, I believe, education is fantastic. There are many groups that promote the educational side. The soldier now is different from when I was there. But the must is the meaning; the must is the something to love; otherwise, it really can end in tragedy—as we've heard through the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. One veteran told the royal commission:

My honest opinion is there needs to be some form of tertiary education or proper employment program so soldiers within combat corps have a chance to find meaningful employment and not just become labor hire for the rest of their lives …

Meaningful employment and genuine gratitude for veterans is i believe the key to solving the veteran suicide issue in this country.

If you take that, that's the purest comment that you can get, from a veteran who just looks at the world and goes, 'Tertiary qualifications.'

I often get labelled a little bit of an officer-hater, because, around the country, there are different pathways for senior officers to a degree, by RPL, or getting gifted something; it becomes an easier pathway into university. As a private soldier, there was definitely not that option for me.

I tried to join the APS. They told me I'd be an APS2. So it would've been much less than what I was getting when I was serving, but the experience was much greater.

There has always been this view that when you hit a certain officer level, you can RPL a degree, or get a degree, or find it easier to find employment, whereas the soldiers find it harder. And the majority of our wounded, injured and ill are our lower ranks or our lowest ranks—my rank. So it's being able to get an education, whether it's at a tertiary level or whether you go through a pathway, like I did, and get a cert IV. But it's not being gifted it but doing it, because that's how you grow. Getting gifted something is not how you grow. I think that that's a really positive step in the right direction.

I acknowledge you, with the Returned from Active Service Badge, over in the corner, and I appreciate your service. I appreciate the minister being in here. I think it's fantastic. And the former shadow minister for veterans' affairs is here as well. That's because this isn't about politics. This is the furthest thing from politics. It is a time when we debate and disagree. As Shane is moving around, I note there might be some politics in his speech. But the key to this is putting the veterans first and also their families, which are the backbone.

Allowing a veteran to receive 100 per cent of their pre-injury wage is the most positive step that we can take in getting people into a tertiary education, giving them an incentive to learn and to grow. It's not an incentive to do nothing. It's an incentive to explore a different world, to find something that they'll be able to do when they leave.

We've got people like Curtis McGrath. He found love and meaning in sport. He has gone to the Paralympics. He has won gold medals multiple times. He lost both of his legs. This is a guy who's had all the bad things happen and he's found love, want and meaning in sport. Paul Warren lost his leg. He was an Australian champion Muay Thai boxer, so his profession was his legs. He went into defence. He quickly went over to Afghanistan in 2009. On 18 July, Ben Ranaudo was killed and Paul lost his leg and transitioned out into this big unknown. He worked for defence industry. He found a want, love and meaning, and now he's going to be taking on study. These are fantastic things.

But not all veterans get blown up by IEDs, not all veterans see frontline combat, not all veterans have the same injuries and we are all not broken. I think that's something that's extremely important is this whole 'broken veteran' narrative. This whole thing of feeling sorry for our veterans needs to stop. We empower our most bravest, and they have done us proud overseas and on the battlefield as well as at home.

In Townsville, there are more than 30,000 ADF members, veterans and their families. It's the largest garrison city in the nation. We have plenty of veterans that are doing awesome stuff. We have veterans who are running businesses. One of those really good businesses is Australian Expedition Vehicles. It's run by Michael McMillan. He was also the winner of the most Outstanding Veterans' Employer of the Year in last year's Prime Minister's Veterans' Employment Awards. Mick is a veteran himself and doesn't just employ veterans because they are good workers. He doesn't just employ them because they know how to operate military equipment or vehicles. He employs them because of their heart, their want and his passion for supporting our ADF men and women. He knows the value of a veteran and the mutual benefits that come with being a veteran. Almost all of his employees, veterans, and their work family are just that—a family, a tribe. When I started I told you that I felt that I'd lost my tribe. These businesses, these awesome companies that are employing veterans, are creating the tribe again. It's like all these ex-service organisations. They all come together because they want to create the tribe.

We just need to go that extra step, and I believe this does that. It offers the tribe and the ability and the opportunity for education. The hole that is left when you leave the military, especially if you're medically discharged, is one that never gets filled. It is an itch that can never be scratched. I miss being in defence. I miss my mates. I miss going overseas. I don't miss the field. I don't miss the food! I miss the good times. But stories like Michael McMillan's show us that we can actually find hope. We can find hope in our defence tribe and in businesses that want to support people in their next stage of life, because as the door closes on your military service another one opens. Being given that opportunity to get into employment is extremely important for the wellbeing of our brave men and women.

And a lot of these jobs require an education, particularly in areas like mine, where none of my mates that I served with had degrees. This changes that. This provides that encouragement and that purpose to study, and I think that this bill is overdue. I think that this bill brings us, as a parliament, closer together and it brings our Defence Force into a new realm. The Joint Transition Authority is going to help people transition better. We know that it's a whole, but a part of that process is meaningful engagement and meaningful employment, and the way to get there is by having a bill that encourages people and supports people in that education journey.

While they have families and while they have people there, this is so that support isn't dropped. That's why I am a big supporter of this bill and I commend it to the House.

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