Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hasluck for her question and her tremendous advocacy, as a veteran herself, on behalf of the veterans in her community. The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide found in its interim report that the veterans' entitlement system 'is so complicated that it adversely affects the mental health of some veterans'. That's because there are three different complex pieces of legislation that provide the support system for our veteran community, and some veterans can be covered by all three of those pieces of legislation.

The first recommendation of the interim report of the royal commission was that the government get on with harmonising and simplifying this legislation that supports our veterans. Over the last two years, we have been consulting with the veteran community, families and experts, holding roundtables and webinars around the country, to make sure that we could undertake this very important task. We put forward a proposal that featured establishing an improved Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act as a sole single ongoing scheme, closing out the old Veterans' Entitlements Act and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-Related Claims) Act to any new claims, and grandparenting all existing arrangements to ensure that there's no reduction in entitlements for those who currently receive or have previously received benefits as veterans.

Last month I introduced the Veterans' Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Bill—the VETS bill—to bring forth this new regime to support our veteran community under a single act. This will see an additional $222 million worth of benefits flow to veterans and families in just the first two years of operation of this new model. Critically, this will make it easier for veterans and families to understand what they're entitled to, it will make it easier for advocates to work supporting the veteran community in making claims, and it will make it quicker for the Department of Veterans' Affairs to process those claims so veterans and families get what they need and are entitled to in a timely way.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for all of us across this parliament to improve the circumstances and the supports for our veterans. I want to thank all of the veterans, the families and the experts that have come together as part of the consultation and have given their frank and fearless advice so that we can get this right. I really appreciate the work that they have done to get us to this point, and I encourage everyone to come together to support this legislation so that we can provide a better future for our veterans and families.

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