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

I thank the member for Solomon for his very important question. I also thank him for his great advocacy on behalf of all the veterans in the Northern Territory and in his seat of Solomon and, of course, recognise his service in our Defence Force as well. As the member for Solomon said, when we came to government, the Department of Veterans' Affairs was so severely underresourced that there were some 42,000 veteran claims that were still waiting initial review by the department. That meant that veterans were waiting years and years for their claims for liability to be processed so they could access health care and access compensation.

Back in estimates hearings in November 2022, the former secretary of the department confirmed that the resourcing that had been provided by the previous government for the Department of Veterans' Affairs meant that that backlog would never have been cleared. The Albanese government engaged 500 additional claims-processing staff in DVA specifically to deal with this backlog. We have worked through that backlog. We are now seeing claims processed faster than ever before, making sure that veterans can get access to the support and the services that they need and that they deserve.

Meanwhile the Leader of the Opposition is saying that he wants to cut back on those staff that provide those vital services. He's saying he wants to get rid of those jobs. It's not just the jobs of the people that process the claims; it's the jobs of the people that process the invoices for the in-home supports, the people that make sure that taxis get booked to take veterans to their appointments and the people in the department that make sure hospital bills get paid and that hearing aids can be approved. All of the different staff that support our veterans—that's what the Leader of the Opposition says he wants to cut.

Then we hear the Leader of the National Party say: 'Oh, no, no. Actually we don't want to cut any of those people.' We always talk about the division that's created by the opposition. I didn't realise it was going to be from within their own team about whether they're going to support veterans or not. On this side, we're about making sure that veterans and their families get the support that they need and deserve. The opposition is putting that support at risk because they are putting the jobs in the Department of Veterans' Affairs at risk. That means, under the Leader of the Opposition, under the Liberal and also under the National Party, we will see that Australian veterans are going to be worse off.

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