Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC) Share this | Hansard source

Before I begin speaking on the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Omnibus) Bill 2017: I know that, if Senator Lambie had been here today, she would have wanted to speak on this issue. I just want to put on the record my best wishes for her in the future. Obviously she's had to deal with some very difficult circumstances, and I wish her all the very best.

Labor is supporting the changes, which will clarify, improve or streamline the operation of the law and the processes within the department. The Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Omnibus) Bill 2017 contains eight schedules which deal with a variety of different elements within the legislation. Given the detail of the bill, I will focus my comments on the schedule which has generated the largest amount of discussion and concern, which is schedule 1, and then step through a brief overview of each of the remaining schedules.

Schedule 1 seeks to amend the provisions under which the Veterans' Review Board operates by aligning certain provisions with similar provisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The amendments in schedule 1 will modernise and improve the operations of the board to do a number of things. Firstly, they ensure that, in carrying out its functions, the board will pursue the objective of providing a mechanism of review that is accessible, fair, just, economical, informal and quick; is proportionate to the importance and complexity of the matter; and promotes public trust and confidence in the decision-making of the board. Secondly, they impose an ongoing obligation on both the claimant and the Department of Veterans' Affairs, during the period until the board has determined the matter, to lodge with the board a copy of any document that is in their possession that is relevant to the review and that has not been lodged previously. Thirdly, they provide the board with the power to vary or revoke a decision made under the alternative dispute resolution processes with the consent of the parties and where the board is satisfied that it is within its powers and otherwise appropriate to do so. And, finally, they require the Repatriation Commission and any person representing the commission in a review to use their best endeavours to assist the board in fulfilling their legislative objectives.

In addition, this schedule had included an element which gave the principal member of the Veterans' Review Board the ability to dismiss an application for review of a decision if they are satisfied that the application is frivolous, vexatious, misconceived or lacking in substance, has no reasonable prospect of success or is otherwise an abuse of process. This element caused significant angst in the veterans community and, as a result of Labor's intervention—I might mention at this point the very good work that Labor's shadow minister Amanda Rishworth has undertaken in this area. You may know, Mr Acting Deputy President, she has recently been promoted to the shadow cabinet, which is obviously a great recognition of her work and ability not just in this area of policy but also in a more general sense. She replaces another terrific South Australian shadow minister and former minister, Kate Ellis, who, as we know, is leaving at the next election but has done a power of work on behalf of her community in Adelaide.

As I said, as a result of Labor's intervention, the government removed this particular element of the schedule in the House of Representatives. Labor believes that the VRB was designed to be a less adversarial process than the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. This is the veterans' opportunity to be heard and Labor held significant concerns about the insertion of these provisions. In addition, during the FADT committee process, the principal member advised that there were only three circumstances in the past seven years where he would have utilised this power. Given the small number of times this clause would have been utilised, Labor felt a strong case wasn't made for its inclusion at the expense of veterans' ability to present their cases to the board. As a result, the government removed this element in a series of amendments. Labor welcomed this amendment, which recognised and upheld the unique nature of the Veterans' Review Board.

I would like to go to schedule 2 of the new legislation. It also makes several amendments that enable the convener of the SMRC to give written directions about the manner for lodging requests for reviews or applications, enabling the SMRC to adopt electronic lodgement of request for reviews rather than requiring a hard-copy form as required by the VEA. Schedule 3 relates to international agreements and gives the Minister for Veterans' Affairs the power to make agreements with foreign governments to cover the provisions and payments of benefits under the MRCA and the SRCA/DRCA. As it stands, existing agreements concern only those payments which are payable under the VEA. The new section will now cover allied veterans and Defence Force members with service of the type for which benefits and payments include rehabilitation that can be provided by the Repatriation Commission or the MRCC under the VEA, MRCA and SRCA/DRCA or the Australian Participants in British Nuclear Tests (Treatment) Act 2006. Labor is supportive of extending agreements to cover all veterans' affairs legislation to ensure that veterans are covered under the relevant legislation framework, whether that is VEA, SRCA/DRCA or MRCA.

Schedule 4 legislates the employer incentive scheme payments. These payments are made to employers in the form of wage subsidies to encourage them to engage injured veterans who have found it difficult to compete in a tight labour market. While the department has been able to facilitate these payments, this will strengthen the legislative foundation of the payments. Labor supports measures that assist veterans to move into and retain employment.

Schedule 5 amends the MRCA and SRCA/DRCA to facilitate information sharing between the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission, the MRCC, and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, CSC, with respect to certain service related compensation claims. As it stands, due to information-sharing provisions, after someone is medically discharged they go to Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation to organise payments, where they undergo a second medical, and when they go to DVA for assistance they undergo a third medical. These amendments seek to enable information sharing between the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation and DVA to reduce some of the rework. These amendments are designed to enable the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation to access relevant claims information held by DVA where that access would assist CSC in the performance of its functions and the exercise of its powers. Access to the department's claims information, particularly relevant medical and rehabilitation information, would assist the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation to make speedier superannuation benefits assessments, which in turn assists the department to determine a person's entitlement to incapacity payments. A common complaint of veterans and advocates relates to the complicated and lengthy claims process for people seeking assistance from the department. Labor supports changes which will improve this process, as long as adequate safeguards are in place to protect veterans' privacy.

Schedule 6 seeks to amend the MRCA to provide the Minister for Veterans' Affairs with the power to delegate his or her powers and functions to members of the MRCC, employers of the department or persons engaged or appointed under the Public Service Act 1999. This function already exists under the VEA but was overlooked during the development of the MRCA.

Schedule 7 will amend the legislation to exempt certain legislative instruments from subsection 14(2) of the Legislation Act 2003. It will enable these legislative instruments to incorporate material contained in other non-disallowable instruments or other non-legislative writings as in force from time to time. The current requirement to amend the Veterans' Affairs portfolio legislative instruments to incorporate changes in non-disallowable instruments causes significant administrative issues for the department. These changes will essentially allow material to be updated with new reference information without lodging each individual instrument with the parliament. Many of the legislative instruments include references to external documents which are incorporated by reference into instruments that are legally regarded as being part of the instrument. As such, any change to the documents can't be recognised unless the changed versions are incorporated into the legislative instrument by an amendment or a replaced instrument. This process can cause significant administrative issues and unnecessary delays. An example of this can be seen in relation to the availability of a new rehabilitation appliance. The availability of the new equipment will be delayed as the legislative instrument—in this case, the treatment principles—that incorporates the document under which the application may be provided would need to be amended to refer to the changed date of the policy document.

Schedule 8, the final schedule, will repeal redundant and spent provisions administered in the Veterans' Affairs portfolio concerning benefits that are no longer payable under the portfolio acts. This was originally proposed as part of the Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2015) Bill 2015, which lapsed with the end of the parliament in April 2016. This schedule will remove references to payments which are no longer able to be accessed by individuals, in order to simplify veterans legislation and make it more accessible for individuals wishing to interpret the current provisions. The proposed amendments seek to remove the following: the clean energy advance during a period before 1 July 2012; parts providing for one-off payments to older Australians in 2006, 2007 and 2008; the Economic Security Strategy payment for 2008; and the education tax refund payment of 2012. In some circumstances, a person may be found to have been eligible for one of the payments because of a retrospective assessment of pension. Following the repeal, such a person will retain the eligibility to receive the payment on the basis that they were eligible for an underlying payment during the relevant period the repeal legislation was in force.

I think this legislation not only has bipartisan support but now accurately reflects the views of the veterans community. Overall, it will be welcomed by the veterans community as a sensible piece of legislation and one that we have worked together to land perfectly. Labor is supportive of these changes. Given the amendments the government moved in the House of Representatives at Labor's urging, we offer our support to this bill.