Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Blue Mountains Legacy is a vitally important organisation providing welfare, pension, advocacy and compassionate assistance to ex-service personnel and their families in the electorate of Macquarie. The Legacy premises at Springwood are used to facilitate meetings and functions and as a hub to provide advice to its members concerning welfare and pension matters. A number of other veterans and ex-service organisations use the premises. Additionally, the DVA uses the premises for information sessions and has previously invested funds for the upgrade of key amenities—specifically, $30,000 for an upgrade of the kitchen.

However, Blue Mountains Legacy is facing the significant challenges of being unable to cover an urgent bill of $40,000 for rental expenses and being unable to ensure that it can secure the lease for its Springwood premises until 2020. Blue Mountains Legacy has applied for rental allocation funding under the BEST grants scheme. While it is technically eligible for the funding, the grandfathering approach the minister and department have taken in only continuing rental allocation funding for current recipients of the program—not for new ones—poses a challenge.

I am extremely dissatisfied with the minister's response to this dire and urgent matter. Without Blue Mountains Legacy obtaining the necessary funding for their rental commitment and to provide security of tenure, vital services for veterans and their families—there are more than 2,500 veterans in the Blue Mountains—will be lost. I implore the minister to reconsider Blue Mountains Legacy's request for rental allocation funding so that the vital services the organisation provides— (Time expired)