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

Veterans pay a high price for not having a minister at the cabinet table, and since that decision—which, of course, has been taken as a complete slap in the face and an insult to so many veterans—we have seen that the capacity for veterans to be properly represented in both the budget and outcomes has fallen away. In the 2022-23 budget, I noted that there was $12.21 billion, and in 2023-24, nearly $12.32 billion dollars. This is a vastly less amount—I think it's only about a 0.94 per cent increase—when we're up against seven per cent inflation.

The budget was also bereft of information. We noted during the budget estimates that not only did Minister McAllister have to do an opening statement but the department secretary had to do a 10-minute following clarifying statement. What the statement confirmed was that the backlog of veterans' claims peaked at 45,226 in September last year. That's a record, and it happened under the Labor government. It's also got a legacy that the largest veterans' claims backlog in the history of Australia was presided over by Labor. The coalition will keep the pressure on Labor to get that backlog down to zero. We will be unrelenting in this task. We will pressure this government to continue the coalition's plans to bring on more staff to clear the backlog. We will pressure the government to honour the commitments to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, which was established by the coalition.

We note in Budget Paper No. 2, on page 92, it allocates $61.4 million in 2023-2024 for veterans' claims processing. We also note that the interim report of the royal commission confirmed that under the coalition government in 2021-2022 and 2022-23 DVA received increased funding to address the claims backlog. The royal commission noted on page 235 that the former government, the coalition government, committed $73.3 million over four years in supplementary funding—on top of what we did—for claims processing. The coalition supports the principle of consolidating the various acts that govern veterans' compensation, MRCA, DRCA and VA. But it is not a blank cheque. We will wait to see whether the results of the consultation are the visibility of a draft bill. Our concerns from Senate estimates are that we were given the impression that a draft would be put forward in the public domain for consultation, but that has been delayed. When the estimates panel was asked for a guarantee that there would be an exposure draft, they were told:

An exposure draft would be a matter for government, and I think that in this case it's likely that they'd give that very serious consideration.

They'd better give it more than serious consideration because of the promise. The coalition is extremely concerned about the performance measures on Page 39 of the portfolio budget statements that relate to processing the income support compensation payments under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act. Across the board the budget papers show that processing times got worst in Labor's first year in office.

I would like to move to veterans hubs, and I know the member for Braddon will latch onto this. But Labor made a deliberate decision not to continue the funding for eight veterans hubs committed to under the coalition. I ask the minister to be clear about when these sites will be reassessed and what funding will be put on the table. Labor scrapped the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Labor scrapped Wagga Wagga region, Labor scrapped Mackay region, Labor scrapped Wide Bay and Burnett, Labor scrapped the Sunshine Coast region, Labor scrapped the greater Melbourne region, Labor scrapped the Mornington Peninsula region, Labor scrapped the greater Sydney region.

Some things that are very close to my heart are World War I's unmarked graves. I note this was a great program that the coalition were a part of for those who did it tough when they came home from World War I, which both my grandfathers served in only about a mile away from one another. I am very suspicious that there is only $201,000 for the program this year, which includes a carryover of $100,000. The government says it has committed $1.5 million across four years. Where is it? The coalition is suspicious of government efforts to pressure the War Memorial into rewriting history. We see that right now, and it is a disgrace. In the last few months we've seen that what was absolutely indelible in regard to the frontier wars not being represented at the War Memorial, because Australian soldiers did not serve in any frontier wars in that period of time, will now be put into the War Memorial, or there's a push towards it. This means they've found new history in merely months, after years and years of noted history. This is something I would like the minister to explain to us. What is the new information you have now that was never there before?

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