David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the building at 310 St Kilda Road, located within Melbourne's Victoria Barracks. Opened in 1937, 310 St Kilda Road was formally known as the repatriation building for soldiers returning from war. During World War II, this building saw more than 200 patients each day to help repatriate them back into the community. During 1946-47, new wings were added to the building to keep up with the overwhelming demand to help soldiers with medical and psychological injuries. After its need to repatriate soldiers had been fulfilled following World War II, this two-storey rendered brick building was more recently converted into offices. However, since 1998, this building has been unoccupied and fallen into disrepair. 310 St Kilda Road, Victoria Barracks in Melbourne was home to soldiers returning from war to help them find themselves back in the communities they once left. But the building currently does not have an identified use by the Department of Defence.

A proposal for which Mark Johnston, a lead organiser for the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum, ANVAM, has lobbied me, and one which I find myself passionate about, is to turn this unused building back to its original glory and once again help aid in repatriating our returned soldiers back into the community through the use of art rehabilitation developed by the ANVAM initiative, a national tribute to military veterans and families. Veterans often return home with acute psychological or medical conditions that impair functioning, family relationships and re-entry into the workforce, with many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. Reports have highlighted the impacts of defence service on veterans and their families, including on their mental health, and the need for support and appropriate treatment is critical and should be nationally addressed for the sake of our soldiers, our national heroes. Art therapy provides effective treatment and health maintenance intervention for veterans, focusing on all of their life challenges, such as mental, physical and cognitive impairments. Intense emotion and memory, often difficult to convey in words, can often be more easily expressed in images with the guidance of a trained therapist. Given the number of soldiers who have gradually returned from our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, whom we paid tribute to over the weekend through the national day of commemoration for Operation Slipper, art therapy has the potential to assist them as a form of rehabilitation.

In Labor's last budget, we committed a record $12.5 billion to veterans, including an additional $26.4 million over the forward estimates to expand access to mental health services for current and former members of the ADF and their families. Labor hopes that the Abbott government is able to work in a sensible and bipartisan approach in aiding in the proper repatriation and suitable care of our returning soldiers. I believe the project for 310 St Kilda Road to turn this building back to a safe place, a constructive space, for returned soldiers will help our heroes battle the constant mental and physiological impairments they face each day due to the sacrifices they made to protect our country.