Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker and Member for Clark—a veteran. I also acknowledge the work and service that the member for Solomon has done for the veteran community. I thank you both for your service, and I thank other members for theirs as well. I quote:

Why employ a veteran?

Veterans come from diverse backgrounds and bring sought-after qualifications, skills, experience and an ability to work collaboratively under pressure

Those words are from an award-winning company, Executive Risk Solutions, founded by its executive chairman, Scott Houston, a former member of the Australian Special Air Service Regiment. Scott served in senior military and corporate roles across a diverse range of international environments. He's a former national winner of the Telstra Business Awards. He's doing his part to help veterans transition into civilian life, into civilian jobs—into highly paid, highly skilled jobs but also many jobs right across the spectrum. He says that there are many, many opportunities for veterans to fit back into civilian life. He says that his recruitment division provides clients with direct access to highly skilled and qualified ex-Australian Defence Force candidates, as well as 5,000 current serving members looking to transfer into civilian careers. Scott's doing his part, and we all should too. I commend the member for Blair for bringing this particular motion forward. Anything that the government can do to help our veterans, I'm sure, members on this side will support too, absolutely, because we need our veterans to know that there are many opportunities available for them.

I also need to point out that not all veterans are broken. There seems to be a perception, sometimes pushed by the media, that veterans come back—some from war engagements, some from peacekeeping arrangements and some who've never left the country but worked in canteens in various Army, Air Force and Navy bases around the country—suffering from PTSD and are of no use to society. Well, they are of use. Each and every one of them has a contribution to potentially make. Each and every one of them has untapped potential, and businesses should avail themselves of those opportunities to employ one of our marvellous veterans who have done their bit for our country. It's now our job, as a nation, to do our bit for them.

I commend the work being done by Bob Bak and his wife, Gladys, of Bethungra—both awarded OAMs—with their Integrated Servicepeople's Association, which is making the links between opportunities for veterans and the veterans themselves. I proudly come from Wagga Wagga. It's the home of the soldier. You know it well, Deputy Speaker Wilkie. Every recruit does their basic training for the Army at Kapooka. If you spend any time in the Royal Australian Air Force, you end up at Forest Hill at Wagga Wagga. And, of course, we even have a Navy base, even though we are a long way from the nearest drop of sea water. We are a proud garrison town. We are a proud military centre.

Five million dollars was offered by the coalition for a wellbeing centre for veterans, and I do worry that that centre may now, potentially, not be located at Wagga Wagga. If ever there was a centre in Australia that requires such a facility, it is Wagga Wagga, in the heart of the Riverina. I know the Wagga Wagga RSL sub-branch, along with the New South Wales RSL, have plans for an advocacy centre for our veterans. I know the work that Charlotte Webb and others have done in that space for the RSL. I am also well aware of the Pro Patria community-led initiative, where they have taken over the centre previously occupied by the Carmelite Sisters at 19 Morshead Street in north Ashmont, in Wagga Wagga. Their board, led by Lyle Salmon, is actively working to make sure that veterans have a future and have hope for a brighter, better future, and that they have employment opportunities.

I commend those two initiatives and urge the government to make sure that that facility is in Wagga Wagga.

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