Petro Georgiou (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs. Would the minister advise the House what action the government is taking to recognise the specific challenges and to provide ongoing support to those Australian Defence Force members who served in Rwanda?

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for the encouragement. I would like to recognise the member for Kooyong for his interest in this matter, along with a number of other colleagues in this place: the member for Gilmore in particular, the member for Hughes, the member for Blair, the member for Fisher, the member for Maranoa and the member for Flinders.

Mr Speaker, you would be aware that the welfare of Australia’s Defence Force men and women is a high priority for the government. Today I was pleased to announce that the ADF personnel who served in Rwanda from 1994 to 1995 will have their service recognised as warlike following a review by the Department of Defence and a decision by the Australian government.

Mr Speaker, you would be aware that nearly 640 ADF personnel served in two six-month deployments in Rwanda at a terrible and tragic time when that conflict took the lives of an estimated 800,000 people who were brutally slaughtered. Our ADF personnel were doing life-saving work in that terrible environment. At the time, the then Labor government declared the service as ‘hazardous’, but facts and history show that that was probably not an accurate account of the threat, hardship and danger that our ADF personnel were faced with.

In 2002 the Howard government put in place a process, a nature of service review, to enable these shortcomings to be revisited and to see that appropriate classifications were put in place. The shadow minister for veterans’ affairs, Alan Griffin, rightly recognised the original decision by the then Labor government as a failure of policy. The Howard government put in place a mechanism to review those designations. Today we have announced that that particular engagement in Rwanda will be reclassified. That will bring immediate benefits to the ADF personnel involved, not only in recognition but also in ongoing access to existing entitlements and benefits, eligibility for the Australian Active Service Medal and also, where those veterans are unable to work, immediate access to the invalidity service pension. In the longer term, this designation also provides added support to those ADF personnel, with access to a gold card at age 70 providing free comprehensive health care, access to the service pension at age 60 and much comfort and support for their family members.

I commend this announcement to the House. I recognise the interest of many colleagues in this place and I invite all members to recognise the great sacrifice and commitment of the ADF personnel in Rwanda who saw horrendous things—brutality and suffering that could not be imagined. We have made that right today with this announcement.