Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

No, I am not joking. Probably for the first time in history, the Australian Labor Party thought so little of Australia's veterans that they did not even bother to release a policy. What we will do during this term of government will be underpinned by four things. The first is recognising the unique nature of military service. The second is maintaining a stand-alone Department of Veterans' Affairs. The third is tackling the mental health challenges facing veterans, particularly contemporary veterans. The fourth is supporting veterans advocacy and welfare services. At the heart of our commitment will be our promise to those veterans on DFRDB and DFRB that they will get fair indexation—the fair indexation they have quite rightly been demanding for a number of years.

We are also going to do something about Labor's withdrawal of advocacy funding. The glue that holds the ex-service community together is advocacy and welfare funding. Without any notice at all, a million dollars was ripped out of advocacy and welfare funding—

Senator Ruston interjecting—

There is an interjection over there from someone who has absolutely no idea about the roles or responsibilities— (Time expired)