Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to condemn the Turnbull Liberal-National government for closing the office for Tweed Heads veterans. The office was previously located at the Centro shopping centre at Tweed Heads, but recently the office was suddenly closed. This means that our veterans now do not have a dedicated office to access the services they need. Instead, they have been told to go to Centrelink. They have been told, 'Go off to Centrelink, and try to get some services and support there.' Make no mistake about it: this is the doing of the National Party. This shameful act is the responsibility of the Nationals, and they will be held to account for this.

The dedicated Tweed Heads office had provided our veterans with the critical services and support they desperately both deserve and need. Our veterans deserve so much better than this. These are the people who have fought for our nation. We must always remember them, and we must honour them. So many of our local veterans are elderly, and they want a dedicated office with staff so that they can speak one-on-one about their concerns. They do not want to have to access services on a computer, and they do not want to have to access services at Centrelink. They want to have, as they had before, their own office at Tweed Heads to access services with the staff whom they knew and trusted.

The fact is that National Party choices hurt, and the choice to close the Tweed Heads office for veterans is one of the meanest and cruellest of all. It has caused great distress amongst our veterans. I understand that our local veterans are very disappointed with this closure. As their local MP, I continue to stand with them and our community against these very cruel and unfair cuts. (Time expired)