Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I have great pleasure in joining today's debate. From the outset, I want to recognise the members in this place who've served in uniform and anyone who may be listening to the broadcast today. I say to them, 'Thank you for your service to our nation and thank you to your families and loved ones who have supported you in that service,' because there is no greater service any Australian can give than to put on the uniform of the Navy, the Army or the Air Force and potentially place themselves in harm's way to help people who can't necessarily help themselves in a time of conflict, peacekeeping or humanitarian aid and disaster relief initiatives. Thank you for your service to our country.

At the outset also, I want to refer to one veteran in particular. His name is Colin William Hannah, a proud Queenslander who was a patriotic Australian who served for more than 20 years in the Royal Australian Air Force. Col served in Amberley, Townsville, Malaysia and as part of a UN peacekeeping mission in the Sinai. He served in Sale. It was when he was based in Sale that I met Col's daughter, and we've been married for 32 years. The posting to Sale was much to my benefit at the time and for the last three decades. Col transitioned out of the Air Force after more than 20 years of service. He established a small farm out from Gympie. He worked in a small business in Gympie as well. He transitioned well.

At a later stage, Col and Lyn moved from their farm in Gympie to be closer to their grandkids in Gippsland. It was there that Col, although he's a proud Queenslander, protested a great deal about the cold in Victoria. He established himself in a new community as a lifeguard at the local pool and also in the ocean rescue squad, where, not unlike a lot of Defence Force personnel I've met over the years, he was quickly in control of the situation. Col became one of the key office bearers of the Lakes Entrance ocean rescue and went on to become a life member of that organisation. He was a man who served his nation well, continued to serve the community and transitioned well.

Throughout his time in retirement, Col was the beneficiary of the Department of Veterans' Affairs' services. They almost turned him into the $6 million man with a new shoulder and a couple of new knees—injuries related to Col's service in the Air Force and also his participation in sporting events where he represented the RAAF at the highest levels in volleyball. He was also a keen sportsman in other areas, keeping fit to do his job in uniform. Col passed away two weeks ago.

I tell this story because, while he is one individual, it is typical of the vast majority of Australian service men and women that I had the pleasure of meeting in my role as veterans affairs minister but also prior to that as the parliamentary secretary for defence. I tell his story because it's very easy in this place and in the community to misunderstand the nature of military service and misunderstand the importance of the transition and misunderstand the fact that, again, the vast majority of men and women who serve in uniform will train well, serve well, transition well and represent our community and serve our community later in life in a whole range of other roles.

For those who have issues, whether they're physical or mental health issues, absolutely as a grateful nation we have an obligation to support them in their time of need. Australians can be proud of this simple fact. We provide enormous support for our veterans and their families. In fact, it is amongst the best in the world. But—and this is a big caveat—it is not perfect. We know it's not perfect. We know we can do better. It is the role of this place in a very bipartisan way to ensure that people like Col and people who have transitioned to become veterans and have issues that need resolving are well supported in a timely manner. Australians, though, should be proud of the fact that in excess of $12 billion per year is provided to our veterans and their families to support them in their life after their role in the Australian Defence Force.

I've been very privileged in this place to work in roles related to the Australian Defence Force. There would be very few members of the Australian community who have not served in uniform who have had as much exposure to the Australian Defence Force as I have. It's been my great good fortune. I spent a lot of time as a parliamentary secretary but also as a veterans and defence personnel minister in the company of the men and women in uniform. I can say without any risk of contradiction or correction from anyone in this place that they are the most patriotic, professional, determined, mission focused people I've ever met. There is no question that you can have all the fancy equipment in the world, but our greatest capability in the Australian Defence Force is our people. Our challenge in Australia, in this place, is to ensure that we continue to recruit our share of the best and brightest young Australians to serve in uniform, and in doing so we have to reassure them and their families that they will be well looked after no matter the circumstances they may face.

As I said, we can be proud of the fact that the veteran community in Australia is a beneficiary of up to $12 billion in support per year, but it's not a perfect system. So I do commend those opposite and those on this side of the House who have worked constructively to try to find ways to improve the system. As I said at the time of announcing the royal commission in April 2021, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was an opportunity for our nation to reset the agenda and to try to unite our veteran community as much as possible in what has been a very difficult, sensitive and incredibly complex issue for our veterans over a long period of time. The complexity of dealing with multiple acts—and my great friend beside me is a veteran who has qualifying service for all three acts—is confusing. It is complex. The attempts to harmonise and simplify the acts applying to our veterans going forward are commendable. I don't for a second suggest that it's an easy process for the minister to deal with, but we need to make sure that no veterans will be worse off as a result of the decisions we're making here today.

I agree with the broad themes in the royal commission's report that additional efforts are required to harmonise that legislation, but I also totally reject any suggestions in this place or in the broader community that the previous governments, the Morrison and Turnbull governments, failed to act to improve the system for Defence Force personnel, veterans and their families. I said many times when I stood at the dispatch box as minister that the only acceptable number of deaths from suicide for me as the minister was zero, and that has to be and must continue to be our goal going forward—to eliminate death by suicide amongst our Defence Force personnel and our veteran community. To do that, we have to provide the practical support and the ongoing measures to keep ensuring that we drive the agenda, drive the hope for the future and let our veteran community know that they will be supported when they need it.

From my experience, the Department of Veterans' Affairs itself is overwhelmingly a positive force for good in this space. The DVA does cop a pretty poor rap across some sections of the veterans community, and I think, in many cases, it's quite unjustified. Again, from my experience dealing with, particularly, our older veterans—I'm talking about our World War II cohort, the greatest generation of Australians, and the Korean War veterans and Vietnam War veterans—once their claims have been resolved, the benefits that flow to them are quite seamless and the DVA does a very good job.

The area where DVA has always struggled—during my time in office and, I think, still today—has been in reducing the time taken to process a claim. Some of the things we did in government to try and address that were, first of all, to employ more staff and make more contractors available to try and speed up that processing of claims. We also introduced what we call a statement of principles, where some claims which were blatantly obvious and clearly a part of doing a certain job in the Defence Force would pass through seamlessly. So the statement of principles did speed up the process as well.

We also introduced a system of free mental health care for all veterans and their families regardless of whether it was associated with their military service, the feeling being that the support in terms of mental health care for veterans and their families was a practical measure and could be introduced immediately to ensure that people got support when they needed it, rather than having to wait to go through a time of assessment of whether they could prove that actual injury was associated with their service in the Defence Force.

As a government, we introduced the first of the wellbeing centres across the nation. There were eight wellbeing centres—in Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Albury-Wodonga, Nowra, Tasmania, South-East Queensland and Townsville. We introduced for the first time a psychiatric assistance dogs programs for veterans with mental health issues, an incredibly successful program that I continue to receive emails and messages from veterans about today, thanking me for working with the department to introduce that service to our veterans. We appointed the Defence Families Advocate, we introduced the veterans covenant and veterans recognition package and we overhauled Open Arms and made it more fit for purpose, with more peers available to support our veterans in their recovery. We also introduced the Veterans Employment Awards. I make this point about the awards, and I'm proud to say it continues today.

We have to be very careful in the public narrative in this place that we don't perpetuate a myth that every veteran is broken or busted, because, if we perpetuate that myth—that every one of them has an ailment that renders them unable to take on a future role—it's very hard for me then to argue that you should employ a veteran. It's very important that we do not overinvest in the mythology and feed our veterans a diet of helplessness and hopelessness when in fact the reverse is true.

As I outlined from the outset, my father-in-law, Col, and many other veterans I've met do serve well and they do train well. They do great things in their time in uniform, and then they transition well and make an incredible contribution, some in this place and some in business and in other areas. So the Veterans Employment Awards is about recognising the great training our Defence Force personnel receive. It is very transferable to a civilian role, and they become the leaders in our community when they transfer out. The Veterans Employment Awards are an important part of the package of measures to support our veterans going forward.

Commencing the establishment of the Joint Transition Authority, which I know was subject to a fair bit of debate during the royal commission, is a process that needs to continue because we need to ensure and recognise that that transition time is a sensitive time. It is when things can go wrong. If someone is transitioning pre-emptively and didn't expect to be moving out of our Defence Force, through injury or whatever it might be, they need support at the time.

We also funded the redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial, which is ongoing today—a major redevelopment which is allowing for the service and sacrifice of the most recent generation of Australian veterans to be appropriately recognised in that most hallowed building in the country. So I think that redevelopment, which is proceeding at pace, will be something that will be well received by the younger generation of veterans in our community.

Another thing we did which is pivotal to the conversation we're having today is we actually asked the question in the 2021 census: did you ever serve in the Australian Defence Force? Until then we didn't know how many veterans we had. Now we know how many we have—about 600,000—and we actually know which electorates they live in, which will inform future decisions on wellbeing centres and other services that the government needs to provide in partnership with ex-service organisations. So a lot of things have happened in this place to support our veterans and their families in the last few years, and more is required to be done.

One thing we did do which I think will stand the test of time and will result in a new appointment in the near future is we installed a National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide with the powers of a royal commission. I think that an enduring national commissioner is a reform we should pursue and we should return to that policy position sooner rather than later.

I commend the current minister for his work in this area. I commend the Department of Veterans' Affairs for the efforts of their staff in trying to provide support for our veterans in a timely manner. I commend the ex-service organisations for the work they do in supporting our veterans and their families on a voluntary basis.

In conclusion, I'll finish perhaps where I started. The vast majority of Australian Defence Force personnel will train well, they will serve well, they'll transition well and they'll make an incredible contribution to Australia in the next stage of their lives, but, for those veterans who experience difficulties for any reason, we must give them and their families the support they need in a timely manner. Naturally, like everyone in this place, I am extremely sorry about and distressed by those who have been failed in the past. I worked every day as a minister and will continue to work in this place to ensure that we recognise and support those who put on our uniform.

There are literally thousands of Australians, both volunteers and paid staff members, who are working today to support our veterans and their families. Their contributions are already saving lives, and they deserve to be properly acknowledged as we continue to work constructively on a bipartisan basis to support our Defence Force personnel, veterans and their families. (Time expired)

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