Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

To have to have compassion, you've got to have the economy able to earn the money to do it. What this budget failed to do—using New England as an example—is invest in that crucial infrastructure to drive the economy forward and to keep the money coming in so you can pay for Medicare. I acknowledge the concern that the member for Tangney would have had for his daughter having cancer, but you can only have that compassion if you can pay for it. That way you pay for it is to make sure you have an economy that hums and earns money. But when the Labor Party comes out and cuts money from things like Dungown Dam, that reduces the capacity of this economy to make money. It reduces the employment and manufacturing opportunities that rely on the security of water infrastructure to earn money for the nation to pay for compassion.

When we see Inland Rail kicked into the long grass, we see the Labor Party doesn't have a vision. There's this ridiculous concept where we have an inland rail that doesn't go from Melbourne up to Brisbane. It goes from Melbourne to Parkes and from Newcastle to North Star, and they're not actually connected up. It is just ludicrous. You now have a stranded multibillion dollar investment that is completely and utterly ineffective because it doesn't go from Brisbane down to Melbourne. And they've got no intention of building it. How do you expect to get the economy humming, if you're going to leave the trucks on the road rather than put the transport on the rail, if you can't drive forward these inland towns?

Now everything else is going to reviews—like the Singleton bypass. We've got 19,000 people driving down George Street in the seat of Hunter, which is a Labor seat, and it's on review! So are they just going to continue with this morass of traffic, going through the middle of a country town, when we should have the motorway extended? That bypass should be expedited, not put to a review.

Likewise, there's the Muswellbrook bypass—another review. On the New England Highway there should be a Tenterfield heavy-vehicle bypass. We've got trucks going down to 40 kilometres an hour, loaded with such things as petrol, driving through the middle of a country town. It's taking us not to the country we should be but back to some country from pre-antiquity. These trucks have to be moved out of town. It's safer, it's quicker, it's better for the economy and it drives our capacity to pay for compassion, to pay for the services such as your NDIS and your Medicare. You've got to have an economy that hums.

Now we've got a further impost coming on, an environmental impost, biodiversity offsets. There's this mad fascination with wind factories. There'll be new transmission lines in the seat of New England going from Limbri to Weabonga, over people's farmland—while they see their power bills go through the roof. Their power bills are going through the roof and we're cluttering and littering the landscape.

You'll never see people who hold this as a virtue wanting it in their electorates. No. It's got to be out in regional electorates. You've got to have your virtue somewhere else. Make it a bumper sticker. Put it on your car: 'I love wind factories as long as they're not in Hunters Hill,' 'I love wind factories as long as they are not at Middle Head,' 'I love wind factories as long as they're out in Western Australia or up in New England, where people in other seats that claim the virtue can't see them,' and, at the same time, 'Let's make it so that poor people can't afford their power bills,' because that's what has happened. That's what we've done to them. We've made poor people poorer.

There are so many things. We're trying to move timber again from up above Port Stephens Cutting, which means we have to upgrade Port Stephens Cutting. It's very dangerous having logging trucks go down there. But now that's under review, getting that road fixed: let's just leave it dangerous—let's just leave it dangerous for the mums and dads driving up and down that road. We get to Canberra and become so fascinated with issues inside this building and have no comprehension of people in regional Australia and exactly how their lives are.

Gwydir Highway improvements are also under review. The New England Highway has to be duplicated. That's under review. Even the Goonoo Goonoo Road duplication, from Greg Norman Drive to Calala Lane in Tamworth—$32 million—is under review. Tamworth is a growing city with a growing water problem. The population's moving up from Sydney into the new suburbs that are being developed all the time. You can see it when you fly over there. But we've got to have the infrastructure to keep up with the growth. The prices of houses in Sydney are becoming too dear, and people are moving out of Sydney and into Tamworth. Being a person who was born there, it amazes me how quickly it has grown.

We also have to look at the budgetary requirements, especially for veterans. We were promised so often that this was going to be better than what we had. It's great to see the minister here. The backlog in veterans affairs was the biggest thing. They haven't got better; they got worse. In the 2022-23 year, Labor's first year in office, just 11 per cent of DRCA liability claims were determined within 100 days. That's worse than the 16 per cent of the previous year, when we were there. In Labor's first year in office, just 90 per cent of the DRCA permanent impairment claims were determined within 100 days. That's worse than the 27 per cent in the previous year. In their first year of office, just 40 per cent of DRCA incapacity claims were determined within the first 100 days. That's worse than the 54 per cent in the previous year.

Even with a greater investment, Labor is doing a worse job. We've seen a massive increase in staffing. DVA average staffing levels have gone from 1,964 to 3,129, but they can't turn around their processing. This delay in processing is one of the hubs of where we are with the royal commission, trying to make sure that this thing actually works. So what is going on? Why are they going backwards? In fact, they managed to create a record in the number of claims that were outstanding. After February it was over 41,132—I can't find the number, but it's around that—and that was worse than any peak that happened under the coalition. It has gone backwards.

Labor has no plans for any new veterans hubs beyond those announced last year, two of which are completing hubs put in place and fully funded by the former coalition government. Because there are no further hubs going forward, that means the Mid North Coast of New South Wales around Coffs Harbour, where so many veterans are, doesn't get one. Wagga Wagga, with the three arms of the Defence Force there, miss out. Mackay miss out. Wide Bay miss out. The Sunshine Coast, greater Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula—that means Labor has axed plans for eight veterans hubs that were fully costed and announced by the previous coalition government.

Veterans employment transition grants such as a Soldier On, disaster relief and payments to RSL have been cut. They were supposed to maintain the incapacity payments for veterans studying. This is where a person is maintained on 100 per cent of their pre-injury earnings so that they can go to a course and get themselves back into society and back onto civvy street with new qualifications to assist them for the rest of their lives. But Labor has got rid of it. At no stage did the government flag that this scheme was a failure or was under review, but it was just lost. Veteran homelessness—the words do not appear once in the portfolio budget statements.

Government m embers interjecting—

Veteran homelessness—is it there? Veteran homelessness does not appear once in the portfolio budget statements. The reason it's not in the portfolio budget statements is that the minister is not in the cabinet. He is in the back room, and he's not being heard. That's where veterans issues are, in the back room not being heard. We support the Veteran Games, and we hoped that the Labor Party would support the Veteran Games, which are incredibly important, but we don't hear about it. I urge the minister, seeing as he's here, to reassess the decision to reject that funding.

This is something very close to my heart: a program for the funding of World War I unmarked graves has been cut. Labor's first budget last year slashed more than $2 million from a dedicated program to mark the private graves of World War I veterans. People came back from the First World War, fell on hard times from the atrocious things that happened there, with shell shock and gas, and their lives were completely turned upside down and destroyed. Families fell apart. A lot of those people, when they died, ended up in pauper's graves—unmarked graves—around the countryside. In country areas, we don't even know that the person in that plot served our nation and put their lives on the line for our nation. They're in an unmarked grave.

Now we're talking to people who believe there are probably only a couple of hundred thousand dollars left in the program. I'm going down to Tasmania to talk to some of these people to try and see what we can do to drive this program ahead. Surely if they put their lives on the line for our nation, they deserve the dignity of a grave with a headstone on it that acknowledges them. Surely they deserve that. The World War I unmarked graves funding from the coalition was $3.7 million over the forward estimates. Labor's funding was $1.5 million spread across four years, but in 2023-24, there is just $200,000 allocated for the program. That's on payment measures page 87 if you want to have a read of it—

Maybe if they let you into the room, they'd let you read your budget papers before they go out.

Now we have the Australian War Memorial. Last night was quite an interesting night. Something has happened since November last year. History has changed. In November last year, apparently there was neither the legal position nor the evidence for Frontier Wars, but last night it turned up. They can't actually nominate where it is, they can't actually nominate how they changed legal opinion and they can't actually show you the change in legislation; they've just changed. It's just changed. Could it possibly be that it's somehow part of the Voice campaign? Has this become part of the political process? What a slight, to start manipulating how the Australian War Memorial works for political purposes without being able to show any redirection via reason of change in legislation or a change in facts, but just because that's what the zeitgeist wants and that's what the zeitgeist has determined. I think it's a disgrace. I think that is an absolute and utter disgrace, and I will certainly be pursuing that.

In the War Memorial the appropriations for ordinary annual services is at $42.1 million in 2023-24, which is less than what we put towards it, which was $46.1 million in the year prior. The War Memorial should be constant, should be unsullied by any of the issues of the pertinent political zeitgeist of the day. It should remain unaffected by the political whims and nuances that might rattle around in this building.

There are things we welcome in the budget. Replacing and modernising the ICT systems is good. The Sir John Monash Centre in France—that's a good decision. Grandparents caring for children of veterans—that's a good decision. Volunteer training and suicide recognition intervention—that's a good decision. But it is also incredibly important that the veterans' affairs minister be in cabinet. He shouldn't need—

An opposition member: Well done, Barnaby. You're doing him a favour.

We shouldn't have to. In the year of the royal commission, which I was one of the people fighting for, you need to have the minister in the cabinet. That's why I believe so many of these things are falling through the cracks.

I would like to close by acknowledging that this year is the 50th anniversary of Australia's participation in the Vietnam War. I would like to acknowledge the 523 who died, the over 3,000 that were wounded, and the thousands of families affected not only by the person going away but by their circumstances on their return. I apologise on behalf of the Australian people for how they were treated. Never in the future should anybody ever be sullied by reason of offering their lives for our nation. That is an issue for the politicians to deal with and take the barbs for; never ever the soldier.

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