James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank all senators for their contribution to this debate on the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Digital Readiness and Other Measures) Bill 2017. I would like to extend my thanks to the Scrutiny of Bills Committee and the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee for their examination and recommendations in relation to the bill. As the minister mentioned in the other place, their suggestions have improved the bill. As we heard during the debate, the Department of Veterans' Affairs is taking veteran centred reform to significantly improve services for veterans and their families by re-engineering DVA business processes. In anticipation of planned business and ICT reforms amendment is required to provide a sound legislative basis for computerised decision making. Computerised decision making at DVA is expected to streamline services, free up resources and prepare DVA for future ICT upgrades. Computerised decision making would enable some elements of the Repatriation Commission's and Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission's decision making processes to be conducted by computer processes rather than by delegates.

The Department of Veterans' Affairs is one of the few client focused departments that does not have a capacity for computerised decision making. Other Commonwealth agencies already use computer programs to make decisions and are seeing benefits for their clients in reduced wait times on decisions and faster processing for claims. It is the intention of the department that in the short term computerised decision making would be gradually implemented only in relation to those decisions and determinations suitable for electronic decision making and when no subjectivity for a decision would play a role. In all cases, it will be the Secretary of DVA who will decide whether a computer program could be used to make decisions, and the secretary would not be able to delegate that power to anyone else in DVA.

The government has decided to accept the amendments made by the opposition, as they will restrict computer decision making to decisions that will not be adverse to clients of the department. The computer decision making measures are incredibly important to allow the benefits of ICT reform to flow to veterans as soon as possible. The importance of passing these amendments has meant that the government has also put forward amendments to schedule 2. The amendments that the government has made have removed the public interest disclosure provision from schedule 2 of the bill. The government believes these changes would have made stronger protections for veterans' privacy, including 15 safeguards that currently do not exist. It is unfortunate that misinformation and misreporting of this provision has meant that the government will forego these safeguards. However, as mentioned, the importance of the computer decision making powers and the need to provide these benefits to veterans has meant that to have the bill passed we have removed the provision.

Schedule 2 also contains information sharing provisions between DVA and Defence. Currently, information about serving members can be provided to the Secretary of the Department of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Force under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 but cannot be shared under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 or, if enacted, the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-Related Claims) Act 1988. This is anomalous, especially since the CDF owes a duty of care to members, especially those members deployed in operational contexts. Information sharing can also promote healthy work practices in the military. For example, the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission may notice a common pattern of injuries arising out of certain duties. This information should be shared appropriately so that work practices can be adjusted, resulting in fewer members being injured. These amendments would simply replicate existing information-sharing provisions found in the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004.

The amendments in schedule 3 are minor and technical in nature. They update references to penalties expressed as a number of dollars with penalties expressed as a number of penalty units. Such changes enhance readability, facilitate interpretation and promote consistency across the Commonwealth statute book.

I would like specifically to acknowledge the contribution to the debate on this bill made by senators. Senator Farrell noted the constructive work done between the government and the opposition, particularly in relation to the public interest disclosure provisions. As Senator Back remarked, it is vitally important that we put veterans front and centre. The amendments in this bill provide a vital plank for the foundation of veteran centric reform in the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Senator Back also touched on the fact that the government has been listening to the views and concerns of members and senators and the veterans community. When this bill passed the House, several strong amendments were made that addressed concerns. I think the senator for his work on this bill and that of Senator Gallacher. The government would like to thank members of the crossbench for their engagement on this bill also. This bill will go a long way to creating a better level of service for veterans. It will allow the continuation of reform that will mean the department will become a 21st century service provider.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.