Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Recently, I caught up with Sam Kavanagh and his partner, Annette, who run Bootstraps, a wonderful veterans' organisation based in Gatton in the Lockyer Valley. I caught up with them in Gatton but I also caught up with them before that in Ipswich, at the Cooneana Heritage Centre. Sam was in the military since 1984 and he set up a wonderful charity to help people who are veterans living with disabilities, or even indeed those people who are not suffering from mental incapacity or physical incapacity. It's about helping them, and in a great way in terms of the service they provide. There were many people at their open day from Mates4Mates to the RSL. The local media were there and many organisations, including councils and the like. But Sam and Annette have done a great job. I came across a variety of people from my electorate who were there learning leathercraft. It was about dealing with the incapacity that they'd experienced and how they had transitioned out of the military.

I am pleased to speak on this Military Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment (Incapacity Payments) Bill 2022, to support people living with incapacity who are veterans—people who are, indeed, part of the charity of Bootstraps in the Lockyer Valley. It also helps people from Ipswich who transition. We owe a debt of gratitude to our Defence Force personnel, veterans and their families, and we have a solemn duty to look after them. The recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report on veterans' wellbeing shows that former defence personnel are a tremendous asset to our society. It's our duty to provide the necessary support, like Bootstraps in the Lockyer Valley, to veterans and their families who leave the Defence Force, enabling them to contribute to our community in many ways.

This bill extends by one year a four-year pilot which is supporting eligible veterans in full-time study, from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023. We're doing this really because of the ignorance, idleness and inertia of the former coalition government, which, not just with this bill but with other bills, failed to bring it into the House of Representatives or the Senate in time to be passed in the 46th parliament. The Minister for Veterans' Affairs is sitting there on the bench and he has a big job to do, because he's going to have to pass bills that have been sitting from the last parliament which the coalition didn't pass and should have passed. This was a budget measure—let's not forget about that. I accept the words from the member for Herbert and I believe he's genuine in what he said, but the truth of the matter is that the Minister for Veterans' Affairs in this chamber today is dealing with a budget measure from last year which created uncertainty in the lives of veterans and their communities. Hundreds of veterans—370—participating in the program were left in the lurch and out of pocket, copping an immediate cut to their payment of 25 per cent. If the previous coalition government under Prime Minister Morrison had got around to actually doing its job and passed the bill they would not have been out of pocket since 30 June 2022.

I recall as a local MP and also as the former shadow minister, receiving representations from concerned veterans about this measure before the last election, so I'm pleased that the Albanese Labor government is now in a position to fix up the mess created by the Morrison government in this area. This bill reinstates the program and allows the calculation of incapacity payments to these veterans once again to be based on 100 per cent, not 75 per cent, of their pre-injury earnings. It's imperative the legislation be passed. It is a matter of urgency to financially support veterans. We're here today because of the failure and inaction of the former coalition government. We're about giving veterans certainty and financially supporting them.

This bill complements the work that the minister will do in the $24 million Veterans' Employment Program, which we announced in the last campaign. It was a comprehensive veterans package. Too much of what we've done in the past has been about awards, and not enough has been about concrete work on the ground to help veterans in the transition to civilian life. We know many veterans struggle to find work when they transition to civilian life, and that can lead to other problems—mental health issues, homelessness, incarceration and even suicide.

We've got a royal commission, which Labor strongly supported and had to drag those opposite, kicking and screaming, into doing. We saw the interim report. Those recommendations, if picked up by this government, I'm very confident, will go a long way to supporting veterans who are living with incapacity and who need to be transitioned into civilian life in an appropriate and supported way.

I note that the Housing Australia Future Fund has $30 million geared to veterans' homelessness services. One in 10 people who slept rough or slept as a homeless person last night was a veteran. It's not enough to give platitudes and honour people on Anzac Day; we've got to support them in practical ways, and that's why it's important.

I note that the royal commission picked up on the legislative framework. It said that legislation that deals with incapacity and deals with veterans' compensation and rehabilitation needs to be coalesced into one usable form of bill—a code, shall we say, that the Veterans' Entitlements Act, the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act can be included in as well. Those veterans advocates helping veterans living with incapacity—in my electorate, for example, in the Ipswich Railway sub-branch, in Kilcoy, in Lowood or elsewhere—do a great job, but they're dealing with a piece of legislation that's challenging. So today we've got a bill that will help veterans in incapacity, and we should pick it up and support it in the chamber.

It's really important to do this, and it's important that bills that we pass in this chamber are not tokenistic. Too much of the legislation that was brought in by the previous coalition was tokenistic—it lacked clear goals and targets and evaluation, provided little incentive for employers and relied on goodwill and PR. There were not enough practical supports for employers and practical supports for veterans to transition into community life and into serious employment.

I was very happy to see the Minister for Veterans' Affairs convene a series of roundtables on veterans' employment in the lead-up to last week's Jobs and Skills Summit. There were some great outcomes, and I commend the minister for that. The great outcomes for veterans from the summit include a one-off income credit so that veterans on a service pension over retirement age can earn more before their pension is reduced. For working-age veterans, there will be additional digital apprenticeships in the Australian Public Service targeting disadvantaged groups, including veterans, providing more jobs and training opportunities. That's really critical, particularly if veterans are living with any form of incapacity, physical or mental. The reality is that veterans and defence partners are a highly skilled yet relatively untapped workforce, and don't we need them now! We need to do more things like we're doing today—boosting recognition of their skills and experience and getting them into good-quality jobs. That's absolutely critical.

We will also support them in veterans hubs around the country, including in my electorate, in the Ipswich to Springfield area, which was sadly neglected. Labor pushed that, year after year after year, and the coalition refused to do it. We even had then Prime Minister Morrison coming to my electorate but refusing to announce one in my electorate, even though he was announcing them around the state and around the country. That's just another aspect of supporting veterans living with incapacity.

I know that the minister will be discussing the recommendations of the royal commission with veterans ministers in states and territories. I urge all those people to make submissions to the royal commission. They should be encouraged to do so by 13 October 2023. I note the final report will be handed down on 24 June 2024.

It's fantastic to see the willingness of veterans ministers around the country in the states and territories to get on board with programs to support veterans' education and training. I personally saw at the launch of the Student Veteran Support Program at the Australian Catholic University campus on the north side of Brisbane how important that was to help veterans in that transition. Tertiary education is critical.

In closing, it is initiatives like this pilot program that we're debating today that will support veterans financially and boost their capacity and their mental health as they transition from the military. There are a lot of things we need to do. The previous government dropped the ball and we saw at the royal commission the $430 million that was cut from veterans entitlements and out of the budget. The previous ministers, Minister Chester and Minister Gee, failed to disclose those cuts that they had to disclose at the royal commission. We saw the former minister threatening to resign before the last budget. You talk about transparency and accountability. We need to do better, and we will do better. I'm very confident that the new Minister for Veterans' Affairs has veterans at his heart.

This legislation is part of a suite of policies of this government, including 500 full-time frontline staff, ending the privatisation, outsourcing and labour hire in the Department of Veterans' Affairs that were perpetrated and perpetuated by those opposite. It's very important that we get those full-time experienced public servants to assess those claims. This legislation is important and is part of a suite that the minister will deliver to help veterans around the country. We need a better future for our current serving ADF personnel and a better future for former defence personnel and their families. That's why this bill is so important today.

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