Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to support the third annual statement on veterans and their families today, and would like to recognise the Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel for his commitment to supporting the men and women who have served our nation.

One of the great privileges of serving as the member for Boothby since 2016 has been working with my veterans community in my local area to ensure that veterans receive the support and the recognition that they deserve. I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the following local organisations and thank them for all that they do as fierce advocates for our veterans, as supporters of one another and supporters of the families of our veterans, and as the people who commemorate and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, our safety, our freedom and our democracy. They are the Blackwood RSL; the Marion RSL; the Brighton RSL; the Plympton Glenelg RSL; the Plympton Veterans Centre; the Vietnam Veterans Federation SA Branch; the National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association, South Australia & Northern Territory Branch; RSL Care SA; the Mitcham RSL; the Colonel Light Gardens RSL; and the William Kibby VC Veterans Shed. To all of these wonderful volunteers, I say thank you.

The Morrison government is supporting our veterans in a range of ways. We have a particular focus on supporting veterans' wellbeing, mental health, housing and post-service employment. I'm particularly proud of our $30 million investment to establish a network of six new veterans wellbeing centres that will bring together key services for our veterans and their families. This includes the establishment of a centre at the repat hospital site at Daw Park in my community. Working together with the South Australian Marshall Liberal government and my local community, particularly my veterans community, we are reactivating this iconic site that the former state Labor government cruelly shut down so that once again it is a safe and caring place for our veterans and the broader community to receive the very best health care and support.

We also want to help ex-service organisations to find veterans civilian jobs when they decide to finish their Defence service careers. We will be providing $16.2 million over four years to support non-profit organisations, including Soldier On, Team Rubicon and the state branches of the RSL, to deliver tailored, innovative support to help veterans find meaningful civilian employment. Through the Prime Minister's Veterans Employment Program, we have introduced the Veterans Employment Toolkit. This provides information to veterans on how to translate skills based on their Defence rank, prepare a resume and job application, prepare for interviews and adjust to the civilian workplace. As part of the program, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel announced the Veterans Employment Commitment last November, inviting businesses to make a public commitment to the employment of veterans. More than 150 organisations have signed this commitment, and almost 2,000 vacancies have been advertised on the government's jobactive website, flagging Defence Force experience as desired. Our Supporting Younger Veterans Grants Program has delivered more than $157,000 to Flinders University, in the heart of my electorate, in partnership with the William Kibby VC Veterans Shed, to develop a program to support younger veterans to undertake tertiary education. This program leads to improved pathways for younger veterans as they move into civilian life.

Our government has also recognised the civilian doctors and nurses who served our nation alongside our ADF personnel during wartime. I note that, of course, nurses have taken a very active role in a range of combat zones throughout our history of military involvement in wars. Last year, after decades of fighting for recognition, our government extended the DVA gold card entitlement to the SEATO medical team who served during the Vietnam War. I worked closely with SEATO nurse and local Boothby resident Helen Taplin to secure this outcome and was able to gain a small insight into the rewarding and heartbreaking things she experienced in Vietnam.

My local community is home to the Women's Memorial Playing Fields—an eight-hectare site that was established by Liberal Premier Sir Thomas Playford in 1953 as a memorial to the 21 nurses who were massacred on Radji Beach during World War II. Each year, we hold a ceremony to commemorate their service and remember their lives and their sacrifice. I'm incredibly proud to have secured a $500,000 grant to upgrade the memorial to commemorate the lives of these brave nurses and all female service personnel.

The privileges and freedoms that we all enjoy as Australians are only possible because of the sacrifice and service of our veterans and Defence Force personnel. Our government is committed to supporting our veterans and their families and honouring their service and sacrifice for decades to come. To all who have served our nation, we thank you most sincerely.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel for his statement in the House yesterday and congratulate him on his re-election and reappointment into the role, a very special role. I also want to thank the minister for our recent meeting in relation to the wellbeing centre for Darwin and Palmerston and the rural areas of the Top End. I am appreciative of the chance I had to meet with him. I also want to thank him for recently visiting Darwin and Palmerston and talking to some veterans. I look forward to a further meeting with the veterans' affairs minister when the opportunity arises so that we can follow up on the feedback he received during that visit.

To echo the minister's speech yesterday, it is far from the case that everyone leaving the ADF is broken, busted or doing badly. The truth is that for the vast majority of people serving in the ADF it is an overwhelmingly positive experience. I'm sure I speak for those former members of the Defence Force opposite who have served our country when I say that for the overwhelming majority of individuals it's a great experience going back into the broader community and showing all those great skills, attributes and knowledge gained, and how that service to our country can continue in different ways in the national interest. That transition into civilian life, although it can be stressful—and I'm sure we've all had times when we've experienced difficulties during that transition—can have the resilience that I think individuals gain in the ADF, and so the overwhelming majority of former defence personnel are able to transition back into civilian life well. For those who aren't able to make that transition as well, we should be doing everything possible to assist them, and I note some of the policies and programs that the minister mentioned yesterday which are aiming to assist that transition.

The Northern Territory is an important strategic location for defence and it continues to make a very substantial contribution to the NT economy, not only through direct and indirect employment but also through the demand for local goods and services that the defence organisation has. Defence personnel contribute substantially to our population and also contribute substantially to the turnover that we have in population in the Northern Territory. That comes with some challenges, but I like to think that in the Northern Territory we all work together to mitigate the sometimes negative effects of that turnover. Overwhelmingly, they enrich our community.

It's estimated that the NT's total defence population, including the families, is around 12,000 people, and, at the time of publishing, the last DVA annual report listed over 3,000 DVA clients in the Northern Territory, including myself. I note that, in his speech yesterday, the minister referenced a number of initiatives, as I mentioned, and Labor supports all policies that improve the lives of veterans. But I do urge the minister and those opposite to consider some of the policies that we took to the last election. They were announced after exhaustive consultation with the veterans community and I'm happy to talk to any of those opposite about those policies.

I think that a veterans employment program and assisting people into work is one of the most important things that we can do. Homelessness, unemployment and underemployment are all serious issues that, as I mentioned, are interrelated and require our immediate attention. I just want to mention that the recent report undertaken by WithYouWithMe listed the unemployment rate of veterans at about 30 per cent, and underemployment at 19 per cent. These figures are concerning and we should be doing all that we can to assist members transitioning out of service for our nation.

Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As did the minister, when he provided his statement, I begin by acknowledging in this place all those who have served in the Australian Defence Force and their families, including the members for Solomon and Herbert, who are here in the chamber today. I acknowledge also those service men and women, and their families, across Australia on this day. I am delighted to speak on this third annual ministerial statement on veterans and their families, and I feel uniquely qualified in this space because both myself and my wife, Peta, are veterans, and we have three children, two of whom were born whilst we were still both serving in the Australian Regular Army.

To help illuminate some of the challenges that families face, I thought I'd start by sharing a personal story. In our first year of married life my wife and I spent a grand total of nine weeks together, which brought its own challenges, although we reckon one upside was that every time we did see each other, it was a bit like another honeymoon. Moving forward to the following year, we somehow managed to fall pregnant with what became our first child, and we were posted to Darwin. In that same year I was posted as a young platoon commander across to East Timor. Whilst I was away on that deployment to East Timor we were posted to Townsville, which meant that, whilst I was away, my eight-months pregnant wife needed to move in the Darwin tropical heat on her own, with no family support, from Darwin to Townsville. When Peta got to Townsville and was busily carrying boxes down to the storage room underneath our accommodation, which I still hadn't seen, a storm came through and the basement area flooded, which meant that all our boxes of clothing, including all the baby clothing that was there in preparation, was flooded and ruined. So there was my wife, eight months pregnant, in the stifling Townsville heat, having just moved house by herself, dealing with an insurance claim and about to have our first child. Two weeks later, it was Christmas Eve and Peta was sitting in midnight mass in the church in Townsville when she started having contractions. She raced out to the hospital and bore our first child on Christmas Day. My mother-in-law made it across from Perth to Townsville just in time to cut the cable ceremoniously, with me on the end of a satellite phone on the border between Indonesia and East Timor.

That's just one story, and I thought I'd never be forgiven for it. Funnily enough, I was forgiven and I get in more trouble nowadays for forgetting to unpack the dishwasher. Thankfully, we did recover. I thought I'd share that story. It's only one story of a great many stories, in fact, of tens of thousands of challenging stories that occur every day, in which veterans and their husbands, wives, partners and of course children manage complexity and challenging circumstances.

Let me now touch on another issue that is very important to veterans and their families, which is the circumstances of transition. Just as enlistment and basic training are important in the ADF, transition back into civilian life is extremely important. Every year, 5½ thousand people transition out of defence and back into civilian life. This government is investing so heavily in transition support so that, regardless of the time that a member has served, members can access coaching, including career planning; full service documentation; skills recognition; and resume preparation, as well as job search programs and financial literacy education.

It's important to note that it is not just the government who are supporting veterans and their families during transition. There are some amazing organisations who are also providing support. One of those is the veterans transition centre in Jarrahdale, in my electorate of Canning in my home state of Western Australia. It is situated in a natural bush setting, nestled in the Darling Ranges on about 42 acres. It is only 45 minutes from the CBD of Perth, but it provides an amazing bush retreat for veterans and their families. Here there are 20 A-frame log cabins, a communal hall, a kitchen area, barbecue facilities and an outdoor fire area. It's a place where veterans and their families can visit for planned, as well as unplanned, activities.

I was really pleased that Minister Chester visited just Friday a week ago and was able also to see firsthand one of the activities that were underway. This activity was being conducted by an organisation called The Younger Heroes. The mission of Younger Heroes is to strengthen families. Younger Heroes run a three-day physical and psychological training camp designed to reconnect veterans and those who've served the nation with their children and to build resilience in those relationships through shared effort and open communications. I was really pleased that my wife, Peta, and our three children, were also participants in this Younger Heroes camp. It was quite timely having the minister, my wife and three kids all there on the same day. My wife reported back to me afterwards that it was an amazing experience, being there with our three teenage children, reconnecting in that bush setting, with some planned and unplanned activities, along with other veterans and their kids.

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. She does indeed. They're some of the wonderful things that are happening in the transition space. Some are driven by government and some by the passion that others share for supporting veterans and their families.

Let me touch briefly also on employment. The member for Solomon very rightly pointed out, as did the minister, that the vast majority of our veterans leave Defence happy, healthy and with an amazing set of skills. When they transition into civilian life, these skills can brought to bear for the success of business organisations. Smart Australian businesses realise this and they hire ex-ADF men and women, to access their unmatched experience and skills in leadership, in discipline and, of course, in successful teamwork. Today, I call on all Australian employers to take the lead from other great organisations, including my own former employer, Woodside Petroleum, and tap into the veteran skill pool.

This government is committed to caring for those who have served our country, as well as their loved ones. All Australians can be rightly proud that the government spends more than $11½ billion a year to support veterans and their families. I look forward to continuing to advocate for and support our veterans and their families, to all of whom we remain incredibly grateful and proud.

Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take this opportunity to respond to the Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel's annual statement on veterans and their families. I acknowledge the member for Stirling and his partner and thank them for their service. I would also like to thank every member of parliament for their service, as well as everyone around Australia who has served our nation so proudly.

I take a deep interest in this area. Not only am I a veteran myself but I represent the largest garrison city in the country, the city of Townsville. There are more than 5,000 regular and continuous full-time service personnel in my electorate, plus more than 2½ thousand spouses and around 3,000 children in Defence Force families. They're just the current figures for those serving at the moment, but there are far more than that still living in Townsville who have left the armed forces. How many exactly? That's a good question, which unfortunately is difficult to answer. We don't know exactly how many veterans there are living in our community, and that's why I very much welcome the minister's commitment to support a question in the 2021 census regarding ADF service. As the minister said, the data would help DVA and ex-service organisations to improve and better target services and support, particularly to the large portion of veterans who are currently unknown to DVA.

An issue coming to light recently in my community of Townsville is the number of veterans who are experiencing homelessness. Fortunately, there are organisations out there providing emergency accommodation to veterans who are in need. But I hope that this move to gather more statistical information on exactly how many people may be in this category will be helpful to address these issues. There is also a role for state government to be more transparent about where it spends its federal money on homelessness—$319.8 million goes into Queensland. The more informed we are, the better outcomes will be and the better we can all work together.

I want to highlight, in particular, the minister's comments with regard to the families of veterans, because we know that, when a veteran leaves the Defence Force or loses their life, it's the families who are left to either support their loved one or readjust to life without them. It's my opinion that spouses of our current and formerly serving Defence Force personnel are the backbone of our community. They play an integral role in supporting their loved ones. Whether people are unwell or whether they're just fine, their spouses need to be acknowledged for their contribution to the community. My wife—my rock and my best friend—played an integral role in getting me better and back on my feet, and getting me to have meaningful engagement and meaningful employment. I think that's great, and I acknowledge the establishment of the Female Veterans and Veterans' Families Forum and the work of the Council for Women and Families United by Defence Service. This is something that will shape how we do business. It is something that will shape how we in this place will better support and serve the communities we represent.

Just yesterday I met with Rhondda Vanzella, the state president of the War Widows Guild of Australia, New South Wales, and the director, Gwen Cherne, both strong women who know firsthand the battles and challenges I'm talking about. I was so impressed by and thankful for the hard work they are doing to support families who have lost those most dear to them. They highlighted the need for more mental health clinicians to support both serving and ex-serving personnel and their families through mental illness. There is always more we can do when we talk about mental illness and suicide prevention. I know that on all sides of the House we want to be working in the one direction to support our men and women of the Australian Defence Force.

Rhondda and Gwen also indicated a desire for support agencies to be notified of the names and contacts of widows who have lost a loved one so they can ensure that wraparound services are provided as soon as possible, in a compassionate and sensitive way. I believe that is something that would be very well accepted throughout the veteran community. Halfway through this year a serving sergeant from the 1st Battalion died by suicide. While the services were there to help the spouse, I believe that notifying reasonable and responsible services so they can provide wraparound services is something that would help people deal with situations of grief that I can't even imagine.

In Townsville we have a suicide prevention measure called Operation Compass. The Townsville suicide prevention trial is one of the Australian government's 12 national suicide prevention trial sites that are gathering evidence on how to better prevent suicide at a local level and in high-risk populations. The Townsville trial is being led by the North Queensland Primary Health Network and has received funding of $4 million over four years. Compass focuses specifically on veterans of the Australian Defence Force and their families in the Townsville region. Operation Compass has identified a number of priority areas for the trial: improving emergency and follow-up care for suicidal crisis; improving the competency and confidence of frontline workers to deal with suicidal crisis; promoting help-seeking, mental health and resilience; and training the community, families and carers to recognise and respond to suicidality. There are fantastic organisations around the country, and Operation Compass plays an integral role.

I'd also like to acknowledge Swiss8, which is a new charity that I've been fortunate enough to be made patron of. It's run by Adrian Sutter and Anthony Meixner. It's a phone app about the key pillars in someone's life. It talks about what you should be eating, healthy lifestyle, physical exercise, and getting out and being engaged. I think it's important that organisations and charities like this do come up, because they provide meaningful engagement. I'm a big believer in meaningful engagement and meaningful employment, because I think that's how we're going to lower the very high rates of suicide.

It's okay not to be okay. It's okay to have a bad day. It's okay to have mental illness. But what I want to tell everyone is: if you're not doing well, there are places where you can seek help; there are places you can go to speak to a professional. I'm not a clinician. I don't give advice; I can only give information. I believe we need to lower the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide. Doing that is about speaking about it. If I can stand here, at the highest level of government, and say that I've had bad days and I was diagnosed with PTSD, and there are avenues you can take to seek meaningful engagement and employment and get on the right track and get the help you need, I think everyone should be able to talk about it. It doesn't matter what political party you're in or where you sit in the world, we all work together. This is above politics. We think, in this place, that every life matters and everyone should be able to live their life well and—

An honourable member: Absolutely.

Exactly, 'absolutely'. I look forward to working with my side of politics and the other side of politics, because, with mental illness and suicide prevention, we need to be lowering the stigma and working together so people can live a fulfilling life.

Debate adjourned.