Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on the Veterans' Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Bill 2024, and I would first like to acknowledge all our veterans. Thank you for your service and for the freedoms we enjoy today. To the member for Braddon, who is at the table next to me, and the member for Solomon: thank you both for your service to our country and for your contribution to this debate.

These types of bills should be above politics. Across the board, the submissions and contributions that have been made have been very bipartisan, and so they should be. My electorate of Cowper has 9,000 veterans, and, if you want to add their families, you could easily triple the number of people that would require support. We know that not all veterans, when they come back, are in need of support. Some transition very well into civilian lifestyle; many don't. This is much like what happens in the police force or any other paramilitary type organisation. I've seen many of my friends who didn't transition well from the police, so I understand how difficult it can be for some veterans to find their feet and their place in the world.

In Cowper, we have 9,000 veterans, and one thing that really hurt after the last election was that I and a number of advocates—a dozen or so of us—had fought for funding for a hub-and-spoke model. The funding for a veterans' hub was $5 million for one hub, but we put forward a proposition for a hub-and-spoke model so that there would be four centres, from just north of Coffs Harbour down to Taree. That money was put aside, we made the announcement and there was pure joy from these veterans and advocates that there were now going to be places for veterans to go to without having to travel north for three hours or down to Newcastle. Sadly, that $5 million, despite the announcement, was reallocated to a seat further north that had half the number of veterans. I'm not going to say what the colour of the seat was, but the numbers didn't make sense. My veterans and my advocates were absolutely shattered, to the point of tears, because they'd thought they were going to have those support networks that they were promised by our government and by our people when they went off to serve.

Since that time, $1 million has been allocated to veterans' advocates down in Taree. If you know Cowper, you'd know that, if you're a veteran in Coffs Harbour, you are three hours away from Taree. If you're a veteran in Port Macquarie, you're an hour away. Some of these veterans can't get out the front door. They're not going to travel for three hours. A million dollars was allocated to the advocate Geoff Harrison—thank you for your work, Geoff. Geoff went and found a partner, and that was One Life Church. One Life Church said: 'Here's our building. Let's transform it into a veterans' hub.' It works, but the locals, the builders and some of the veterans had to put their own money into that build. That is not right; that is not a support service. We have to be above politics. It has to work on the numbers, and the treatment and the support have to be equal for our veterans regardless of what seat they live in.

Having said that, I do support this bill. It is the No. 1 recommendation from the royal commission. On the royal commission, I know there were three commissioners, but Commissioner Nick Kaldas is a personal friend of mine. If you're wondering out there as to whether these commissioners did not give their all, I can tell you he gave everything. His petrol tank was empty when he handed down the findings not long ago. So I personally would like to thank not only Nick but the other two commissioners as well. You listened to our veterans and you listened to the veterans' families and that is what they wanted. You have made those recommendations, this is the first one to roll out and it makes complete sense.

As to the nature of the bill, the current system and the complexity of the provision of entitlements for veterans are almost impossible. There are three acts covering 2,000 pages—so a phone book—and 850 legislative instruments and it could be described as nothing but dysfunctional, which is why we had to transform it. There is so much miscommunication, frustration. I have spoken to veterans and advocates about the difficulties and the confusion. Some fall under more than one act, so it is made almost completely impossible, which is why the implementation of this bill is not only important but absolutely necessary.

The enhancements that have been proposed under this bill to a number of entitlements will be greatly appreciated and are desperately needed. I completely agree that each is very valuable. Firstly, there is the introduction of a new additional disablement amount similar to the extreme disablement adjustment available under the EA. There will be an introduction of presumptive liability, a consolidation of household and attendant care, an increase to $3,000 for funeral allowance and the availability of reimbursement of funeral expenses up to $14,000 for all service related deaths, higher reimbursement for travel when a private vehicle is used for treatment—as I said, the nearest veterans' hub for my veterans is in Coffs Harbour, three hours away, so that will be well received—standardisation of allowances and other payments, and the introduction of an instrument enabling the Repatriation Commission to determine circumstances where a veteran must receive financial advice before receiving a lump sum payment.

An interim report was handed down in 2022 and this was flagged. While it is good that it is finally in this House today, there was no reason this could not have been done over the last two years. So while we might be patting ourselves on the back that this bill is coming through today, it should have been done earlier. That was the point of the royal commission—that government and the department have dragged their heels for too long. We need to make that change. This bill should go through this week and it will have the support of the coalition.

But I do wish to make a comment about the findings of the royal commission. In the recommendations there are only two that use the words 'partner support'. There are some wonderful veterans in Kempsey, and I spoke to two of them over the weekend. Carly Batty, who served, is the carer for her husband, who did tours of Afghanistan as well as other areas. I also spoke to another lady who was a nurse in the Army. They both said to me, 'Pat, the reason why we had the royal commission was that it was being pushed by not only veterans but also families and partners.' Whilst the ADF might say, 'Thank you so much for your service,' they then turn to the carers or the partners and say, 'They're yours; they are now yours.' Both of these ladies were saying, 'There's no support for us.' It's been recognised, but one of the recommendations is that we collect data. How much more data do we need? We've had the people give the evidence. What we need to do, together, is put the money where our mouths are and provide the funding for those support networks.

I'll loop all the way back around to where I started. Those support networks are those hubs, and we should be prioritising them. Five million dollars is a drop in the budget. We shouldn't be fighting over where they go. We should be saying, 'If you have veterans in your electorate, here's the money and here are the support networks; here's help for you, your family and your partner.'

Many of these veterans don't want to go outside and talk to professionals. It's an old-school thing. In the cops, a debrief was going for a drink. People don't want to go and talk to professionals. But they take it out on their partners. When I say 'take it out', that could be unloading; it could be something else. That partner needs someone they are able to talk to—somebody who will listen and somebody who can say, 'This is where you need to go; this is what you need to do; this is the help that we will provide for you.'

I look forward to the implementation of all 121 recommendations. I thank those people who gave evidence at the royal commission. I thank the parliament for getting this in here today and, no doubt, pushing it through. Once again, finally, I thank all of our veterans for the service that they gave and the freedom that we enjoy today.

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