Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Joondalup City RSL Sub-branch has established a veterans' support centre at the Heathridge Community Centre. I was pleased to attend the official opening with the sub-branch president, Rick Green, and the centre coordinator, Ken Beven. I make particular mention of the dedicated efforts of Ken Bevan, who served as sub-branch secretary for many years and was the integral, driving force behind establishing the veterans' support centre. A veteran is defined as anyone who is serving or has served with the Australian Defence Force.

The centre is open on Tuesdays from 11 am to 4 pm and on Thursdays between 1 pm and 6 pm. It provides advocacy and welfare support to our veteran community, including allied veterans, current serving members and their dependents. It will provide referrals to emergency relief and mental health service providers, advocate for veterans dealing with organisations such as the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Defence Force Ombudsman and provide a 24/7 mobile phone support service. Within the city of Joondalup, the Department of Veterans' Affairs has 2,042 clients, while our neighbouring city of Wanneroo is home to 1,789 clients. On behalf of the parliament, I commend the committee members and volunteers of the Joondalup City RSL Sub-branch for providing this invaluable service to our community.