Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support legislation that is long, long overdue, not by months but by a matter of years—the Veterans' Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Bill 2024. This legislation helps to match actions with the words that we as a government, as a parliament and as a nation use to convey our collective respect toward our veterans for their service, their duty and the sacrifices they've made and continue to make for our country.

This bill represents not just a generational policy reform across this area of law. It also represents a significant moment in the Albanese Labor government's ongoing efforts to honour that solemn commitment—a commitment to ensure that every veteran receives the support that they deserve. These are commitments that they and anyone else in their position would expect their government to honour upon the completion of their service, and they should expect nothing less. They expect to receive this support without the burden of navigating through a broken labyrinthine system, one full of confusion, duplication and needless complication that often, in turn, causes needless distress upon the veteran community, a community this framework was supposedly designed to support. One could certainly forgive many veterans in our community for thinking that the sheer complexity of this system is a purposeful design feature rather than one of circumstance.

Debate interrupted.

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