Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to rise in support of the Veterans’ Entitlements Legislation Amendment (2007 Election Commitments) Bill 2008. I flagged in my first speech that I would be an advocate for our veteran community during my time in parliament, and it is inspiring to see that we are delivering on one of our fundamental election commitments. It will be reassuring to the community that this is the case, as it sends a clear signal and is proof that the Rudd Labor government will deliver on its election commitments.

While we often talk of the need to ensure the welfare of our veterans, as a society we have waxed and waned in meeting this obligation in the past. There is one side to the veterans’ story in particular that has not been well appreciated or adequately addressed. That story is the hidden toll upon and sacrifice made by the families of veterans. It is important that this story be told and that we take the necessary action that awareness must bring. It is certainly important because of what we owe to the veterans and their families. It is also important for the peace of mind and the effectiveness of our current service men and women and their families. We cannot expect that the ADF will function at its best unless its members engage in service and in operations in the knowledge that their families will be looked after. Abraham Lincoln understood this only too well when he spoke the immortal words of his second inaugural speech in 1865, only a few months before he himself was to become a casualty of the long civil war that was coming to a close at that time. He finished that speech by exhorting the nation to care for those who had borne the battle and their widows and orphans as the first among tasks in the healing that must follow conflict. It is my view that keeping faith with this sacred obligation is one of the measures by which we judge the worth of our society.

In my own electorate of Eden Monaro, I am privileged to represent many thousands of veterans and their families. Altogether there are 3,336 Department of Veterans’ Affairs beneficiaries, including 838 war widow pensioners. It was one of the factors that weighed with me in making the decision to stand for the seat. As I travelled around during the campaign, I was to encounter many of these special members of our community and to hear their concerns. Among them were veterans of the Kokoda Track, the air war over Germany and service on the perilous seas of the Indian and Pacific oceans during World War II. There were proud veterans of Vietnam and other post World War II conflicts and peace operations to which we have sent soldiers, sailors and airmen. They talked to me in particular about the situation regarding the indexation mechanism for their superannuation pensions and their struggles to keep pace with the real cost of living. They spoke of some improvements they would like to see in the medical support they are provided and of their hopes that the Rudd Labor government will maintain the security of this country and properly support the new generation of veterans. In this respect, we have tragically experienced recent additions to those who have lost loved ones in action. The funeral of Lance Corporal Jason Marks was a poignant reminder of this, and my heart goes out to his family. I was pleased to pass the concerns and views of my veteran community on to our team, and they have been and are being taken seriously.

Beyond these issues, though, I also came across the stories of the families of veterans. I understood these stories, as I had witnessed aspects of them in my own experiences and family history. My grandfather Ben Kelly was a sergeant in the 2nd/3rd Machine Gun Battalion in World War II and saw service in the Middle East and Java before being captured by the Japanese, along with the rest of his unit, and being sent to work on the Burma-Thai railway. The experiences he endured were only fully revealed to me on reading the diaries of ‘Weary’ Dunlop, whose movements and locations mirrored my grandfather’s. There were only a handful of searing events that my grandfather was prepared to recount, such as having to watch the beheading of his best friend. The sheer brutality and sadistic cruelty that he and his comrades endured can never be fully comprehended, but we should never cease to appreciate what we were spared by their fight against fascism. To this day, pride of place in my possessions is reserved for the loin cloth he wore and his PW badge from that time.

When he was evacuated from Thailand to Australia, he was taken to the hospital at Heidelberg, in Victoria, where he slowly recovered, and he eventually rejoined the family after many months. I have a wonderful photo from April 1946 which celebrates this reunion. I was able to trace the information flow that came back to Australia through his service record. It is difficult to appreciate the mental anguish that his wife must have endured through the war. At first the only information she had was that he was missing. This was followed by advice that he was missing, believed a PW. Finally confirmation came through that he was alive and a PW. By this time, though, there were already reports of the brutality with which captives were treated, and this must have weighed heavily on my grandmother’s mind.

In looking at my grandfather’s service record, the other thing that strikes you is the fact that he, along with so many others of the first wave of volunteers in the 2nd AIF, was on active service for 2,043 days and most of this time was spent overseas. It is hard to imagine today the special endurance of a spouse and a relationship under the strain of almost six years of absence, wondering whether or in what condition a loved one would return. What feelings and sensations would my grandmother have had when she first saw her emaciated and traumatised husband on his return from captivity? It was a great privilege for me to march on this year’s Anzac Day in Bega, my first since leaving the Regular Army, wearing his medals—as he was a proud born and bred Bega boy. Coincidentally, I found myself marching next to a World War II veteran who was also a survivor of the railway, which made the day all the more poignant.

Of course, during those post World War II years it was a given that to give any indication of mental anguish from the war was a shameful sign of weakness in an Australian male and it was considered bad form to talk about your experiences to your loved ones and regale them with the horror you had endured. Added to this for the PW was the perception that somehow they had let the side down by being captured. There were no real outlets for these veterans, so they internalised and suffered with no help. This in turn led to the development of severe pathologies. The manifestation of this would often be nightmares, alcohol abuse and domestic violence. This was often compounded by the inevitable physical ailments and disabilities that resulted from the sadistic brutality and deprivation they suffered. It was the families that also bore the brunt of this. What special courage and endurance did it require to live through many years of this experience with no recognition or acknowledgement and little help?

One such woman, a constituent from Queanbeyan, Thelma Walters, came to me for help. Her story represents those of so many in my electorate and across the land. Thelma dearly loved her husband, Carl, and there is no doubt that Carl felt the same about her and their children. On his return to Australia, and due to his experience in World War II as a prisoner of war of the Japanese, he was not the same man she married or farewelled to the war. For 20 years she lived through all I have described and so much more. Often was the night when Thelma would wake in shock and fright with her husband’s hands wrapped around her throat in a struggle with his demons. He suffered from constant blackouts and spent long months in Concord Repatriation General Hospital. He sought solace in the bottle, which in turn would lead to violence towards Thelma. Often he would disappear for periods of time. This culminated in Thelma surviving an attempted murder, for which her husband in his deteriorating state of mind was unfortunately charged. Finally, for her own self-preservation, Thelma had no other choice but to succumb to the urgings of all who cared about her to separate from her husband. This solution, while removing the immediate physical threat, led to its own burdens of guilt, mental anguish and loss after so many long years of marriage with someone she had never stopped loving. It also meant that Thelma suffered financially, as her divorce led to the loss of war widow entitlements when Carl passed away. I had been pursuing an ex gratia payment on Thelma’s behalf, as I believed that was the least we could do for someone whose private war went on for 20 long years.

Thelma’s own health had suffered over the years, and she recently went into hospital for a hip replacement. In her vulnerable state, however, complications subsequently set in and Thelma passed away on 7 May without returning home from hospital. She was laid to rest yesterday. For Thelma, now all the pain and struggle is over and she is finally at peace. Her passing for those who loved her is eased by knowing that this is so and that in accordance with her deep faith she has gone to something better. The world has been a better place for her having been among us, as despite her own problems Thelma was always there for countless others in her family and community—as was evidenced by the more than 100 people who attended her funeral. She lives on in her wonderful children, Barry, Narelle and Jackie, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren, in the contribution she made to our community and in our thoughts. Thelma Walters is a tribute to the great generation to whom we owe so much. When I think of this legislation, I will think of Thelma and of the sacrifice of all the families of veterans.

As the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs stated when introducing this measure, it is a significant step towards fulfilling our commitment to deliver better services to our veterans and their dependants. It will extend the income support supplement to war widows and war widowers who are under qualifying age and remove a number of other impediments to this support, immediately benefiting around 1,400 people. The bill retains payment of income support so that incapacitated war widows or widowers who are under age pension age will continue to receive their income support supplement as a tax-free payment. There will also be additional support for war widows and widowers to help them meet the cost of living. The bill will extend entitlements to disability pension bereavement payments to help the families of veterans to meet funeral costs. The bill will also extend the automatic grant of war widow, widower or orphan pensions to the widows, widowers and eligible children of veterans and members who immediately before their death were in receipt of a temporary special rate or immediate rate disability pension.

As I have said, this is a significant step, and the other measures announced in the budget demonstrate our commitment to veterans and their families. This budget represents record spending for veterans’ affairs—$11.59 billion—not just because of inflation but in real terms. In addition to the $6.34 billion this government will spend on compensation and income support pensions, this record veterans affairs budget provides $4 million for veteran mental health, focusing on the vital area of suicide prevention; $14.9 million over four years to ex-service organisations to boost their capacity to support the veteran community; and $20 million to secure the future of the historic Graythwaite Estate in North Sydney and for the provision of aged-care services provided by the RSL.

This is in contrast to the previous government, which never funded their promises. Veterans did not have to wait for this budget to benefit from the change of government. Effective from 20 March, the veteran community received increased pensions for war widows, widowers and disability pensioners via fairer indexation—up to $1,045 each per year; increased carer payments of between $600 and $1,600 per carer; and increased telephone and utilities allowances. The federal budget overall is a financially responsible budget. The bulk of veterans and war widows live on fixed incomes and therefore have a greater appreciation of the need to contain and manage Australia’s inflationary pressures.

The member for Gilmore in her contribution  drew to the chamber’s attention the issue of the Korean post-armistice review. I thank the member for her interest in the issue and the plight of the Korean veterans, of which we are fully apprised. The Rudd Labor government has committed to implementing the review. Defence and DVA will shortly be providing advice on the implementation of the review, and the government will then move to fulfil its commitment. Notwithstanding all of these measures and what I have said, I fully acknowledge that we have more miles to travel before we rest on veterans issues.

Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

in reply—I would like to thank all members who have contributed to the debate on the Veterans’ Entitlements Legislation Amendment (2007 Election Commitments) Bill 2008. Later on I will say a bit more on what was said by a number of speakers. This bill delivers a number of election commitments to the ex-service community and is a significant step in meeting this government’s undertaking to deliver better services to Australia’s veterans and their dependants. Firstly, the bill extends the automatic grant of war widow, widower or orphan pension to the widows, widowers and eligible children of veterans and members who, immediately before their death, were in receipt of the temporary special rate or intermediate rate disability pension. This measure also extends gold card eligibility to the dependants of these veterans and members. The dependants will become entitled to free health care for all conditions.

Secondly, the bill extends eligibility for the income support supplement to all war widows and widowers. The measure removes the previous requirements that a war widow or widower be over qualifying age and have a dependent child, be permanently incapacitated or be the partner of a person receiving an income support pension. From 1 July 2008 all war widows and widowers will, subject to the means test, have access to additional income support in the form of the income support supplement. To ensure that no war widow or widower is disadvantaged by this change, the payment of the income support supplement on the grounds of permanent incapacity will be retained. This will mean that, for those war widows or widowers who are incapacitated and who are under the age pension age, the income support supplement will continue to be a tax-free payment.

Finally, the bill extends in respect of certain single disability pension recipients the disability pension bereavement payment. Currently this payment is only payable in respect of partnered disability pension recipients. Under this measure, disability pension bereavement payments will be payable in respect of single recipients of the special rate and extreme disablement adjustment rate of disability pensions who die in indigent circumstances. The bereavement payment is a one-off payment equivalent to 12 weeks of the special rate or extreme disablement adjustment rate of the disability pension. The bereavement payment will help the families of veterans and members to meet the cost of the funeral. The measures in this bill clearly demonstrate that the government is serious about its pre-election commitments to better look after the veteran community and their families.

I note that this bill has been supported by all speakers. It is interesting, though, to note that, while the bill has been supported by each member of the opposition who has spoken, the opposition had nearly 12 years in government to act on these particular issues and they chose not to. That is interesting. I applaud and welcome the fact that now, when they are no longer in government, they have actually agreed to, and support the fact that we are taking, these actions. But I would add that these are not matters which were raised during the death knell before the last election. They were matters which were on the public record as a matter of public concern for years beforehand, and the previous government at that time chose to do nothing about it.

It is also interesting to note the member for Gilmore’s comments regarding the report with respect to post-armistice Korean veterans. As the member for Eden Monaro has said, we are currently in the process of dealing between departments to ensure that the recommendations from that review are supported. But the member for Gilmore was part of a government which rejected most of the recommendations of that review. She was part of a government that had the opportunity to act on these matters and actually refused to do so. I want to assure her that we are in discussions with the post-armistice Korean veterans. We have met with them since the election, we are in the process of working through these issues and we will act with respect to this matter—unlike the government of which she was part.

Many members took the opportunity as part of this debate, as is not unusual with amending legislation, to raise a number of issues with respect to the budget or various aspects of what they believe to be the impact of the budget. I will not spend much time on those issues now because I know there will be other occasions in this place where we will have the opportunity to debate them in more detail. I will welcome those opportunities to discuss some of the measures in the budget and any concerns people might have with respect to their operation and impact on members of the veterans community. But what I will say very briefly is this: this is a record budget with respect to expenditure on veterans affairs. The principal reason for that is, frankly, the implementation of changes which were passed by the previous government, with the support of the then opposition, but came about as a result of pressure put by the ex-service community and by the opposition in the period leading up to the last election.

There are many members here—and I note the member for Fadden is not one of them—who know that before the last election the then opposition, the Labor Party, campaigned long and hard on the issue of indexation, particularly in relation to special rate pensioners. And there were many members—and, I might add, a number of them are not here anymore—who were very belated in terms of their support for that position and who went out publicly and opposed it over quite a period of time. The previous government, who had had this issue raised with them over a 10-year period, did on numerous occasions take a position to not support those calls for a fairer indexation system. I give credit where credit is due: to the previous Minister for Veterans’ Affairs for being able to convince his government to finally act on this issue late last year. I give him credit for doing that. But I note once again that it took 10 years for the government of the day to move, and then only in the context of an election being called and only in a situation where they were fully aware of the fact that they were in grave danger of defeat. And, as we know, that is exactly what the Australian people meted out to them.

The bottom line for members of the opposition is that it is all very well to come along here and be critical of this government implementing its election commitments, as it has done with this legislation or with respect to the budget, when in fact they are glossing over what their record was in this area when they were in government. There was 10 years of basic neglect, only acted upon in the last 18 months. And, in those circumstances, the veterans community of this country were aware of that, understood it and many of them, at the ballot box, acted accordingly.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

Ordered that the bill be reported to the House without amendment.