Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Dan Tehan, gave the first annual ministerial statement on Australian veterans and their families. I wanted to add my voice to that statement, because it was a significant milestone. Ministerial statements are opportunities for governments to measure their efforts, their achievements, their setbacks and their progress in policy. They provide a yardstick for government performance. We see these statements used selectively by governments, often very deliberately in some of the most complex or evolving areas of government administration. This is because measuring our performance, reviewing what we're doing, boosting what's successful, jettisoning what's not and being willing to try new things and experiment are actions that don't always come naturally or automatically to governments and their agencies. But, in my view, there should be more of them. Ministerial statements can be seen as government admitting that there is no simple solution to some of the big complex challenges in our society, while, at the same time, committing to focus more of our efforts and committing to the process of continual improvement.

I think, therefore, it was quite fitting that the minister initiated this measure for veterans and their families. It was a serious and solemn moment in our parliament, and a constructive one. As the Prime Minister has recently said: in these centenary years of Anzac, we best honour the diggers of the First World War by supporting the service men and women, veterans and families of today. It's important for more Australians to understand the unique nature of service. There are almost 60,000 Australians serving in our Defence Force right now. Some will serve overseas and others will serve in barracks and bases such as the barracks at Enoggera in my electorate of Brisbane.

Veterans have sacrificed something that can't be quantified. Time, service and courage—they are all markers of the work in protecting our nation. Veterans face unique challenges: re-entering civilian life, possibly carrying the physical or mental scars of service, and moving from what is a relatively structured ecosystem to the frequently unstructured aspects of everyday life and business.

On average, our ADF personnel will serve for about 8½ years, and each year, more than 5,000 of them will leave service. Some of those will have no choice in leaving service; through medical or administrative discharge, their time in defence will come to an end. A key focus of this government now is on how these men and women transition out of service. Over the last 12 months, about 1,400 members of the Defence Force separated for reasons not of their choosing. That's about twice what the numbers were 10 years ago. How we support these men and women is a reflection of how we care for our most deserving, and, sometimes, our most vulnerable.

Currently, the Department of Veterans' Affairs supports almost 300,000 Australians, and just over half of those are veterans and current serving members of the ADF. Almost half of them are women. Around 80,000 of them are widows or widowers, just like my grandmother, and around 2½ thousand of them are the children of veterans. Today, about 200,000 of those DVA clients are over the age of 65, while only 23,000—about 10 per cent of that number—are under the age of 40. That's just a snapshot of our veterans in Australia. This year DVA will deliver about $11 billion in payments and services, and that comprises pensions, compensation, health care—you name it.

I also want to touch on one area where we must do much better. One suicide is one too many. As we've seen, our veterans and members of the ADF are, sadly, not immune. So this government is determined to address suicide in our community—specifically, suicide in our defence community—and everyone has a role to play.

I want to mention, very briefly, the work the government commissioned with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to provide the first accurate, robust data ever on the prevalence of suicide in our defence community. That research is providing us with a much better understanding of how to help. We also asked the National Mental Health Commission to review the suicide services offered by Defence and Veterans' Affairs, and these findings are informing us in terms of what we do now. They helped inform the announcements that we made in the budget a few months ago, which included, obviously, more funding and more targeted funding, but also some very interesting trials which I look forward to seeing the results of.

Australia should be proud of how it serves and cares for its veterans and their families; yet we can and we must do more. The minister's statement is neither the start, nor the end. It's a commitment to this journey, and a frank and honest assessment of where we can and where we will do much better. We owe that much to the many men and women who have served our country.