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

In continuation of my earlier remarks, where I touched on the complexity of departmental processes for veterans and the significant disdain towards them from veterans' communities. A consequence of that overarching sentiment had led to many veterans' distrust in government upon their transition back toward civilian life regardless of their politics, and to an even greater extent this mistrust deepens in reference to the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Many veterans have come to feel abandoned by the very country they have spent years of their lives in the service of. Reading through a number of the submissions and the feedback provided by veterans and ex-service organisations across the process leading up to the introduction of this bill, I absolutely understand why this is the case.

Walking through the doors of any local RSL or when conversing with any of its members, there will be a good chance you will encounter someone who will tell you a story or two—or 10—about a poor interaction that either they or someone close to them has experienced at the hands of DVA. This is especially apparent within my electorate of Spence, where the pressure of an inadequate system can make usually tough conditions worse for families in our community.

According to the most recent statistics, my electorate is home to 1,316 current serving ADF members and 284 reservists. This is in addition to a veteran population of close to 4½ thousand. Of that population, almost 3½ thousand people are receiving some form of support from DVA. This is in addition to the 600 eligible dependents receiving a number of different payments, allowances or supports issued through DVA. As such, it is an electorate which is home to one of the largest Defence and veteran populations in Australia, the highest in my state of South Australia.

The sheer size of the community in the north is in large part why I'm proud to have advocated for the Albanese Labor government to fund a veterans and families hub within my electorate of Spence. It is extremely heartening that these hubs have received further endorsement from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide as part of one of its recommendations in the final report.

It is also heartening to see a significant degree of bipartisanship during this parliament in implementing reforms to assist veterans. This degree of bipartisanship is something I am now used to from all sides of this chamber, and this is no surprise because we all have, collectively, 350,000 reasons to make sure we get this reform right, and those reasons are the 350,000 veterans and eligible dependents that receive payments, allowances or supports through the three acts which are being reformed as part of this bill. And that number of recipients is projected to rise steadily over the next decade. These people are depending on decisions made in this parliament. It's through this reform that we will fix our system in the present and ensure veterans services are adequate going forward.

Back in September we sat in this place to witness the Deputy Prime Minister table the final report of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide—a report of more than 3,000 pages and weighing in at roughly 12 kilos across seven volumes. But that pales in comparison to the weight of its findings, and the weight of the task at hand in addressing the issues raised.

I became a co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Veterans along with the member for Menzies, who has himself contributed significantly to the veteran space in this parliament. I was proud to have hosted in this place the three commissioners—Nick Kaldas APM, the Hon. James Douglas KC and Dr Peggy Brown AO—in September last year to share their insights while the inquiry was being conducted. Their engagement with the Parliamentary Friends of Veterans was extremely rewarding, as was the attendance of those in the audience. These included Vice-Admiral Mark Hammond, Chief of Navy; Lieutenant General Simon Stuart AO DSC, Chief of Army; and Air Marshal Robert Chipman AO, CSC, who at the time was Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force prior to becoming Vice-Chief of the Defence Force earlier this year. They were attending alongside ESOs, departmental officials and, most importantly, our veterans.

We saw widespread engagement across the veteran space and determination to bring about a solution to the systemic issues at hand—a solution that many veterans and their families have felt that it has been a battle in and of itself to bring about. In fact, many veterans have expressed that they feel like they are fighting a losing battle against DVA to access entitlements and supports, fighting once again after they have left military service. This war is fought on a battlefield consisting of distressing phone calls and being inundated by a forest worth of complex paperwork and legal documents.

This bill aims to end that battle decisively, cutting through the confusion and delays that have plagued veterans for far too long. We owe them that, as a government. We owe them more than this convoluted system. We owe them clarity, dignity and fairness. I say this because the current system is broken. The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide confirmed that beyond any doubt, and the sheer complexity of navigating these three different acts is causing veterans untold stress and tragedy. In some instances these systems have contributed to devastating losses of life, as veterans unable to cope with these processes have committed suicide. For those veterans, who gave part of their lifetime to serve their country and keep us safe, it is absolutely unfathomable that they've lost their lives altogether soon after—lost their lives trying to transition back into civilian life and lost their lives trying to receive crucial support they were already entitled to. This is a national tragedy. Reform is needed, and this bill is an important step towards that.

This bill consolidates the main acts forming part of the legislative framework around veterans entitlements, comprising: the Veterans' Entitlements Act, the VEA; the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act, which is commonly known in the veteran space as DRCA; and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, or MRCA. This framework has evolved since the introduction of the War Pensions Act in 1914, the first of its kind in Australia that legislated military compensation, and has become increasingly complicated.

Between the three main acts that form this framework today—MRCA, DRCA and the VEA—there are over 2,000 pages of legislation alone. This is without factoring in any other instruments, SOPs or other documents that must be considered in conjunction with them. This state of affairs burdens veterans who might already be recovering in their physical and mental health after service even more, already dependent on government assistance to support themselves and their families. So there's an urgent need to address the unwieldy present state of this framework. This is a need the Albanese Labor government has listened to, and rightly so.

This bill has been fundamentally shaped by listening, not just to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide but also to veterans and their families, along with ex-service organisations like the RSL and Legacy, who have given broad support to these reforms.

This bill is also informed by listening to many components of the reviews and reports, from the 2017 report of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee titled The constant battle: suicide by veterans through to the 2019 report by the Productivity Commission entitled A better way to support veterans. That wealth of expert knowledge and lived experience informs this bill, grounding it in the day-to-day lives of veterans across the country.

That process started back in October 2022, when the Albanese government started the first of what would be three phases of consultation. They commenced not long after the first recommendation of the royal commission's interim report, calling on government to simplify and harmonise the veterans legislative framework, which this bill will achieve.

There were two additional rounds of consultation after the initial stage, beginning back in February last year—the first one that was open to the public. This included a number of webinars and in-person consultation sessions in the community, which saw 246 submissions be received by the DVA. These submissions were considered in the lead-up to the final consultation phase, upon the release of the exposure draft of this bill earlier this year. This final stage of the consultation saw the DVA receive over 300 submissions on the exposure draft, many from veterans and ESOs. These submissions would lead to further amendments ahead of the bill that is before the parliament today.

This feedback was extremely important. It goes without saying that the most important and informative sources of knowledge are derived from the experience of the system itself, and those sources are the veterans who have navigated its complexities—the Australians that the government will always have a duty to support. Advocates and ex-service organisations who have fought for reform over many years also contributed significantly, and I acknowledge their important role in shaping the bill.

This is genuine reform from the ground up, with veterans at the heart of it, and rightfully so. In my role as the member for Spence, I was in constant contact with veterans across my community regarding this process of reform, and the message throughout that consultation with veterans and stakeholders organisations, both in my community and across the country, has been received loud and clear: simplify the system. That is the principle at the very heart of this bill, because, from 1 July 2026, all veterans' rehabilitation and compensation claims will be considered under a single piece of legislation, which is MRCA. This will make the system not only simpler but also fairer and more responsive to the needs of veterans. The bill also goes beyond just consolidating the legislation, as it grandfathers past claims in order to ensure a seamless transmission to the new framework.

Furthermore, the bill introduces a range of additional enhancements. This includes the introduction of the additional disablement amount, which provides a new benefit for veterans over pension age who suffer from significant service related impairments. This new measure will offer additional financial support to those most in need, ensuring that they receive the care and assistance they deserve as they age. This bill also includes a number of provisions aimed at streamlining the claims process through the new MRCA, helping to reduce the time it takes for veterans to receive their entitlements, removing the complexity of the current tri-act framework, and working to stop the delays of months, if not years, due to bureaucratic congestion, hurdles and denials before claims are even processed. This is what the veteran community wants our government to do, and that's what we are doing.

Looking forward, our government is committed to maintaining that ongoing dialogue with veterans and their families. We will continue to listen, to learn and to adapt our approach based on their feedback, with the bill opening the door to the further reforms that this engagement will underpin—reforms that will address remaining gaps and ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated. We do this because we have report after report—reports coming from committees and inquiries, from the media and from within our communities and our homes—showing clearly what the tragic consequences of inaction and inertia in the veteran space can be and have been.

We can all take some ownership, as the elected representatives of this country, of the issues this legislation is determined to fix, just as we all have a role to play in ensuring that our parliament prioritises the wellbeing of our veterans both now and in the future. I say this because taking ownership of the problem in the space is how we as a nation will arrive at a solution. I commend this bill to the House.

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