Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, a succession of federal governments—LNP and Labor—have a shameful history of paying lip service to the recommendations of royal commissions. Just look at the critical reaction to your government's response to the disability royal commission. And we're still waiting for a government—any government—to act on the Aboriginal deaths in custody royal commission. So, with the veterans royal commission report about to drop, will you commit to urgently implementing all of its recommendations?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course, we haven't seen the recommendations of the royal commission, so it's a bit hard to comment specifically on them. But, of course, in the spirit of the royal commission, whose establishment we supported, we will give proper consideration to all of them, as, I'm sure, will other members of this parliament.

Veteran suicide is indeed a national tragedy, and we are taking the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide extremely seriously, which is why we've been prepared to provide it with additional resources so that it could hear from more veterans. It's why we responded very quickly to the royal commission's interim report and why we have now taken action on each of the recommendations of that report. On every one of them we have taken action.

One of the recommendations of the report was to fix the veteran compensation claims backlog. When we came to government, the Department of Veterans' Affairs was chronically underfunded and underresourced. The member for Calare, when he was the minister, made that very clear in critiquing his own government's budget, you might recall. In our very first budget, we funded 500 additional staff to get through that backlog. The backlog was eliminated a month before the deadline that had been set by the royal commission. Since we received the interim report, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs has been working with the veteran community to deliver on the first recommendation of the royal commission's interim report: to simplify and harmonise veteran compensation legislation. The minister introduced that legislation into the parliament in July.

We're committed to doing what it takes to improve outcomes for the Defence and veteran community, which is why we've established things like veterans hubs so that people can get all of those services at a one-stop shop. It is why we've included a component for veterans in the Housing Australia Future Fund as well.

We thank every person who has contributed to the work of the royal commission, particularly those who've had the bravery to share their personal stories. It can be really tough for people to relive those things, but they have done that not just to help themselves but to help their fellow veterans and those who will come after them, and I pay tribute to them.

We'll receive the report next month. My understanding is that we'll welcome the report. But we are already working—we're not waiting—to deliver a better future for Defence personnel, for veterans and, importantly, for their families as well.